When Diana Thompson opened her Germantown home to three strangers, she couldn’t have anticipated the lasting importance of that invitation. The men — recent Afghan refugees — became family as Thompson and other members of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Germantown and Mishkan Shalom Reconstructionist Synagogue in Roxborough, assisted with  their resettlement. 

The congregations, paired in summer 2022 by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of Pennsylvania (HIAS PA), each raised $2,000 to support the men until they received asylum, jobs, and stable housing. 

Under the Biden administration, they were quickly granted asylum without significant challenges. Now, as U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids increase, formerly protected immigrants are deported, and resettlement funds are cut entirely, Northwest Philadelphia congregations and residents continue to provide support. 

“Trying to work within systems that are unjust and becoming more and more unjust by the minute, it's hard, but we are not letting these guys down,” Thompson said. “They're here because they need to be here. For each one of them, there is a threat to their lives.” 

Changing rules

In August 2024, Judith Bernstein-Baker, former executive director of HIAS PA (originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and an immigration lawyer, formed the Northwest Regional Refugee and Immigrant Network (NWRRIN). The organization, a coalition of independent groups, connect with volunteers to accompany people to court, offer rooms and food, enroll children in schools, and more. NWRRIN also helps members stay up to date on rapidly changing immigration rules.

For example, Afghan refugees who worked with the U.S. military can receive special visas. However, the Trump administration ended one-time payments given to resettlement agencies to fund three months of resettlement. The government expected these funds to be supplemented by nonprofits; now, efforts are completely funded without government assistance. 

Bernstein-Baker said there are 11 to 14 member organizations at any given time, across religious backgrounds. “There's no shortage of requests for service and high interest on the part of people in our neighborhood who want to roll up their sleeves and actually do something positive in the wake of some very cruel and ugly immigration policies,” Bernstein-Baker said. 

NWRRIN primarily focuses on finding affordable housing for new residents. Welcoming Homes, a member organization founded by Germantown couple Mindy Maslin and Sidney Ozer, connects young adults who arrived as unaccompanied minors with residents who, as Maslin said, have “room in their homes and room in their hearts.” All Welcoming Homes clients have a path to residency through special visa eligibility or asylum, and an attorney. 

Three years ago, HIAS PA asked Maslin to take in a young woman from Honduras facing homelessness after aging out of the social welfare system, who stayed with the couple until she found an apartment. Then, Maslin opened her home and heart again to another woman who stayed for two-and-a-half years; she moved out in June, following her college graduation.

Over the course of three years, Welcoming Homes assisted 10 people. The group also supports clients after making a match, providing programming and case management. “We’re good at handholding,” Maslin said. 

Because of federal funding cuts to resettlement organizations and facing a $7.4 million loss, HIAS PA laid off half their staff in June and terminated their resettlement program. Bernstein-Baker said religious organizations can help bridge the gap and build more trust with refugees. 

“Building something together”

Rabbi Julie Greenberg, Mt. Airy resident and member of the New Sanctuary Movement’s multifaith clergy council, spent 40 years as a social justice activist. She noted her grandparents’ immigration story and later contributions to culture and economy as motivation. As a faith leader, she believes her role is to deliver the message that all humans were made in God’s image. 

“Right now, people are pouring into resistance movements,” Greenberg said. “There's a lot of eagerness to build something together, to stand as a bulwark against the tyranny and demolition of democracy that we're seeing in our country today.”

Ivan Rosenberg, part of NWRRIN member Germantown Jewish Centre’s Refugee Welcoming Team, started working with HIAS PA in 2022 when the team co-sponsored an Afghan refugee family. In 2024, the team applied to be a Welcoming Corps group with HIAS, Inc. Through donations and volunteer time and expertise, the team helped find housing, completed social support paperwork, found medical providers, enrolled children in school and camp, and covered other costs. 

Rosenberg, who grew up without a passport after his parents escaped Communist Romania in 1948 and fled to Italy, experienced the difficulty of immigrating without support. He and other Germantown Jewish Centre members take pride as families get jobs and settle in. 

Jeff Meade (also a Chestnut Hill Local freelance writer), co-chair of the Refugee Resettlement Ministry at Chestnut Hill’s St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, started off by buying a minivan. With his congregation’s support, he raised $23,000 in two months to buy the car for an Afghan refugee family of nine who needed reliable transportation to the Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia. Meade said he was interested in the resettlement ministry because of the scale of injustice in refugee issues, and the fulfilling impact of donations and volunteering. As a retiree, he also thinks it is important to use his free time for social impact. 

“St. Martin’s — indeed, no church — could thrive without all of us, younger and older, working together,” Meade said.

However, the Trump administration’s new immigration agenda set the organizations’  progress back. Rosenberg saw refugees stop attending English classes out of fear of encountering ICE; lessons were moved to Zoom. Even documented immigrants fear running errands. Government rent support, already insufficient, is no longer available.

“It is rather an unrealistic concept of how people settle in this country,” Rosenberg said. “All the help that the government was prepared to give had to be given in the first 90 days, which is really a very incredibly short time for anybody who comes into this country with no knowledge of how it works.”

“The whole idea of not considering applications and just closing down the immigration system [is illegal],” Bernstein-Baker said. “Of course, that's being challenged in court. All these things are being challenged. But we have a government that doesn't listen to the courts. But we still keep trying. Sometimes the courts do listen.” 

Maslin says NWRRIN is looking for volunteers to provide support including translation, court accompaniment, transportation to appointments, and homes. Those interested can fill out a volunteer form at welcoming-homes.org.