What will a Trump presidency mean for refugees in Idaho? “There are a lot of unknowns”

Under federal law, a refugee is a person who cannot return to their country of origin because they are being persecuted because of their gender, ethnicity, political opinion or membership in a particular group. If the United States grants refugee status, that person can live and work here legally. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to overhaul U.S. immigration policy has many refugees in Idaho wondering what it means for their community.

Slobodanka Hodzic is the director of the Agency for New Americansa local nonprofit that helps refugees settle upon arrival in Idaho. She said since the election, people they serve have contacted them asking whether they would be asked to leave the country under a Trump presidency.

“Are they being asked to leave the country? They have nowhere to go,” she said. “There are a lot of fears and worries about their family members. Will they be able to come?”

Trump said he would deport a million illegal migrants in the first year of his second term, but that would not apply to refugees who are in the U.S. legally

Hodzic said refugees in Idaho are also worried about what a Trump presidency means for their loved ones trying to join them in the United States. In 2017, the Trump administration temporarily banned refugees from six Muslim countries from entering the country.

“We still have some clients we took on four years ago,” she said, adding the agency is focused on informing people as much as possible about their rights.

“There is a lot of misinformation and just fear and anxiety among the population. We try to be as transparent as possible, but we still don’t know much,” Hodzic said. “There are a lot of unknowns”

The Idaho Office of Refugees The state reportedly welcomed more than 1,100 refugees in 2024, the vast majority coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Afghanistan.