DETROIT: Lucy Neighbor knew that to start over after fleeing torture, bloodshed and repression in her native Cameroon, she needed to find something called Freedom House. She managed to reach the place in 2008, and though she wasn’t exactly sure what it was, she felt at home the moment the door opened.
“When you come here, the person talking to you has so much compassion and love. All the anxiety, all the fear starts just going,” said Neighbor, 41, who became a U.S. citizen last year and now works at a Detroit-area hotel.
Freedom House is a haven in Detroit for asylum seekers that bills itself as the only facility in the U.S. providing temporary housing, legal aid and other services under one roof and at no charge. For more than three decades, the nonprofit organization has welcomed immigrants from around the globe, especially Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East.
But now, residents and staff members are anxious about the future as President Donald Trump tries to close the door to many newcomers to the U.S.
“They’re scared, they’re crying. Many of them are having PTSD, flashbacks,” said Freedom House executive Deborah Drennan.
In addition to trying to bar nearly all refugees, block travelers from seven Muslim countries, build a wall at the Mexican border and cut funding to immigrant-protecting “sanctuary cities,” Trump made it clear in an executive order signed last month that he intends to take a harder line on asylum claims to “end the abuse” of the program.
Drennan said there are fears that more applicants for asylum will be detained, deported and, ultimately, consigned to death in their home countries.
Foreigners who arrive in the U.S. can win the right to stay permanently if they can show a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland. It takes years for asylum cases to be decided, but between 2011 and 2015, an average of 46,000 requests were made annually and about 9,500 were granted each year.
Freedom House has an annual budget of $750,000, 60 percent of which has come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The agency recently announced it was cutting the funding as it shifts priorities to permanent housing programs. Drennan said Freedom House is appealing the decision but also trying to fill the gap with more donations from individuals, companies and foundations.