Immigrant Aid Group Forced to Lay Off over 150 Workers in NYC

Church World Service, a not-for-profit that assists refugees and asylum seekers and provides international disaster relief, said on Feb. 25 that it is being forced to lay off 151 of its 256-person NYC workforce.

The organization is an umbrella relief organization for 37 different Christian denominations and relies on federal money for over 80 percent of its funding. The sudden halt would appear to jeopardize the very existence of the nearly 80-year-old relief organization.

A WARN notice filed with the Department of Labor on Feb. 25 said the staffers at its local HQ, at 475 Riverside Dr. in Morningside Heights, were being laid off due to “loss of funding.” A WARN notice is an official “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.”

“Thousands of refugee families, who came to this country via safe and legal programs, are now being targeted by a harmful disinformation campaign and policies meant to sow chaos and confusion while denying them access to support services,” Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a news release. “The impact of these program suspensions is disastrous to the communities we serve and leaves behind thousands of people our nation has pledged to protect—including Afghan allies who fought alongside the U.S. military and refugee families who have been thoroughly vetted and endured a years-long process to be approved for travel.”

In addition to aiding asylum seekers, CWS has also been on scene providing disaster relief after hurricanes and in recent California wildfires.

A CWS spokesperson told Religion News Service that the organization has been unable to collect on money owed it from before the Trump inauguration. “We still have outstanding reimbursements for services rendered under contract with the federal government that are not being paid back to us,” Mary Elizabeth Margolis, a spokesperson for CWS, said in an interview with RNS.

Similar layoffs have been taking place at offices throughout the United States.

Earlier in February, CWS said it was laying off 65 people in its Lancaster, Pa., offices beginning in late January and stretching until the end of March.

Although the New York State WARN notice was only posted on the Department of Labor site on Feb. 25, the notice said the layoffs actually began back on Jan. 31 and lasted through the end of that week.

When a reporter from Straus News attempted to visit the CWS offices in the Interchurch Center building at 475 Riverside Dr. on Feb. 25, he was told by the building’s receptionist, “Nobody is up there. They had a big downsizing about a month ago.”

He said a woman had stopped by to pick up the CWS mail that morning, but nobody else was in the NYC office. CWS lists its corporate offices as New York City and Elkhart, Ind.

Church World Service was founded in 1946 to assist with post-World War II disaster and refugee resettlement and is a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations, including Episcopalians, Lutherans, Baptists, and Methodists. It provides everything from blankets, food and water and emergency relief kits, as well as refugee assistance at home and abroad. Its NYC office was helping refugees through the bureaucratic red tape of applying for asylum.

The Trump administration cut aid to groups helping migrants with executive orders signed on Jan. 20. By the end of January, the layoffs had begun at CWS.

It is far from the only organization that saw its migrant funds frozen. On Feb. 21, the City of New York sued the Trump administration for reimbursement of the $80 million it claimed it was entitled to receive for migrant services already rendered.

Brad Lander, the city comptroller, who is among eight people running for mayor in the Democratic primary, said it is illegal for the federal government to withhold the money and he had pushed the mayor’s office and the corporation counsel to file the lawsuit. He said FEMA had already audited the invoices and signed off on the reimbursement.

“After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the City’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back. . . . We look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”

The freeze will have a serious impact on many social service agencies. Lander said that over $100 billion in federal grants and payments flows to New York City.

“Trump shattered the foundation that government keeps its financial promises and in turn, nonprofit executive directors and financial officers are having to brace themselves against the sudden stopping of funds.”

It has already pushed the CWS organization to the brink of a full-scale shutdown. Last year, it listed revenue of $220.4 million, with $186.4 million, or 84.6 percent, coming from the federal government.

U.S. agencies that had funded the organization in the past included U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. State Department; the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration; the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Calls to the CWS offices in New York and Elkhart, Ind., went straight to voicemail.