U.S. State Dept. Cancels Contract With HIAS and Washtenaw County Jewish Family Services Feels the Pain

by Ariana Figueroa

Faith groups involved in refugee resettlement services, including HIAS, which has funded local Jewish Family Services’s Reception and Placement in Washtenaw County, last week asked a federal judge for an emergency hearing after the U.S. State Department terminated their contracts — despite a nationwide injunction earlier this week that blocked the Trump administration’s suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and withholding of funds for those services.

Effective January 24, 2025, the U.S. government issued a Stop Work Order, halting all federally funded activities related to the Reception and Placement (R&P) program and the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund (ERMA).

According to a press release issued by Anya Abramzon, the CEO of Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, “JFS legally welcomed over 200 refugees within the 90 days leading up to the Stop Work Order. Approximately half of these refugees are children.”

JFS has been forced to lay off resettlement staff and Abramzon wrote in her press release, “there is no guarantee of reimbursement for services already provided by JFS and previously agreed to by federally funded entities.”

A majority of JFS’s funding for core community safety net services originates at the federal level. The county organization provides counseling, a Specialty Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, transportation, and Aging services.

According to the Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County most recent federal 990 income tax form, in 2023 the group took in $11.6 million, 98.6 percent of which came from federal and other public funding, up from $9 million in the previous fiscal year. JFS of Washtenaw County reported on its income tax form it employed 153 and had 224 volunteers. The group’s most recent federal income tax return reported a net loss of $15,614 on revenue of $11.6 million.

Of its total $11.6 million in income, JFS reported spending $2.628 million on resettlement services.

Along with allocating $2.628 million to resettlement services, the group’s 990 shows JFS allocated a total of $568,000 to the other program services provided, including counseling, a Specialty Food Pantry, Meals on Wheels, transportation, and Aging services. JFS expenses totalled $8.4 million in order to provide a total of $3.2 million in various services, including resettlement services.

In 2023, JFS spent upwards of $810,000 on salaries for five top executives including Abramzon ($219,165) and four others.

The groups whose funding has been ended, including HIAS, contended in court filings that the State Department moved to kill the contracts after the judge in the case verbally granted the preliminary injunction but before he could issue a written order.

“The Court should restrain this flagrant attempt to evade the judicial branch’s constitutional responsibility to implement the relief announced just two days ago,” according to the emergency motion filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project.

A status conference hearing is set for Monday March 9.

Injunction from the bench

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington issued an injunction from the bench because he felt the matter was urgent, and noted he would issue a written order in the coming days.

“The evidence before me shows that plaintiffs face concrete, irreparable harms, including refugees stranded after selling their possessions, agencies laying off hundreds of staff and family reunification suspended indefinitely,” Whitehead, whom President Joe Biden appointed in 2023, said from the bench.

However, according to the emergency motion, the State Department on Wednesday terminated the contracts for Church World Service and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, or HIAS.

HIAS partners locally with Jewish Family Services, which has resettled Afghani refugees in Washtenaw County.

According to Anya Abramzon, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Washtenaw County, “For decades, JFS has worked tirelessly, in concert with the US State Department, to ensure that legally documented refugees from around the world are welcomed with critical services, resources and support to rebuild their lives in America with safety and dignity. This funding suspension not only disrupts services for newly arrived refugees but also threatens the very foundation of JFS’s mission and its ability to provide essential safety net programs to the broader community.”

“The Termination Notices can be understood only as a deliberate effort to preempt the Court’s forthcoming written order on Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction … and make a nullity of the Court’s stated intention to grant injunctive relief,” according to the filing.

In court filings, one of the emails from the State Department noted the awards for resettlement purposes were being “terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for alignment with Agency priorities and national interest.”

“The decision to terminate this individual award is a policy determination vested in the Secretary of State,” according to the email from the court filing.

Trump executive order

The suit stems from an executive order that President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office. That order suspended all refugee admission and processing, as well as funding for organizations that handle resettlement in the United States for four months.

The order directed officials at the State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security to submit a report every 90 days to the White House. From that report, the president will then determine whether refugee resettlement is “in the interests of the United States.”

IRAP filed the lawsuit earlier this month on behalf of the faith groups, as well as refugees who had their resettlement flights canceled, a local refugee sponsor and families trying to reunite.