Kalpana Rasaily knows what it means to be surrounded by people but to feel completely alone. Growing up in a refugee camp in Nepal after her family was forced out of Bhutan, she was always within earshot of neighbors, never experiencing a moment of silence.
Then, she came to Omaha, a refugee of war and ruin. Working as a nurse aide and serving as a leader in her Bhutanese-Nepali church community, Rasaily was busy, but found it difficult to fit into such a new place.
Through an internship at Lutheran Family Services, Rasaily learned about Global Roots, a program that gives refugee families plots of land to grow food for their tables and for local markets.
Refugee farmers harvest cucumbers, green beans, garlic and other vegetables during the spring of 2024.
Photo courtesy of Lutheran Family Services.
She brought the word back to her church, and acting as an interpreter on their behalf, eight Bhutanese-Nepali farmers began working plots alongside dozens of others who had traveled similar roads from the other side of the world. In the rows between the mustard greens and chili peppers, a community started to grow.
“Global Roots gives them the opportunity to reconnect with something meaningful from their past,” Rasaily said. “It encourages exercise, teamwork, and community involvement. People come together to garden, support one another, and share their harvests, which is also very beneficial for mental health.”
The Global Roots Program is one of many refugee support initiatives across Nebraska and the country facing an uncertain future as federal funding cuts continue to dismantle a history of resettlement infrastructure. The program was founded in 2020 and currently serves around 150 refugees across 9 acres and seven sites in the city.
Participants must hold official refugee status to qualify, according to Sage Wilder, coordinator of the Global Roots program. Current and past farmers in the program come from Myanmar, Nepal and Afghanistan, but can be from any nation.
The program is funded through the Refugee Agricultural Partnership Grant from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. That grant is set to be cut, leaving the program with less than six months of funding, according to Wilder. Lutheran Family Services is now seeking support from private donors to fill the gap.
Wilder said the funding threat extends beyond Global Roots. Lutheran Family Services laid off over a dozen people in 2025 following a halt in new refugee arrivals to the United States and federal funding cuts.
Despite the uncertainty, demand for the program remains high. Wilder said the program has a waitlist of about 70 people, without any active advertising for the service.
National context
Modern U.S. refugee policy began taking shape after World War II when Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 to admit hundreds of thousands of Europeans.
Immigration policy shifted significantly in 1965 with the end of national-origin quotas, opening new pathways for refugees. Large-scale resettlement efforts soon followed, including the admission of Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War.
The Refugee Act of 1980 established the foundation of today’s system, formalizing asylum law and creating a structured admissions process. Throughout the 1990s, policymakers refined immigration policy, expanding certain programs, such as Temporary Protected Status, while restricting asylum standards.
After 9/11, national security concerns reshaped refugee policy, expanding terrorism-related restrictions and reorganizing immigration agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.
Refugee admissions rose again during the Obama administration, peaking in 2016.
During his first term, President Donald Trump initially began implementing more restrictive immigration policies. He capped refugee admissions in 2017 at 50,000. By 2020, the cap had plummeted to 18,000.
While President Joe Biden reversed this downward trend during his term in the White House, Trump quickly began rolling back those initiatives. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the United States Refugee Admissions Program.
“The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” reads the order.
Since Trump’s return to office, the federal government has paused refugee resettlement, put travel bans in place and suspended some applications for refugee status.
In October, the administration set the refugee admissions ceiling at 7,500 for 2026, the lowest in U.S. history since caps were established in 1980. Most of the spots are reserved for white South Africans, which sparked outrage among some Americans.
Advocates and policy analysts said that low refugee resettlement caps go beyond admission numbers. Reduced arrivals also mean reduced federal funding for local agencies, which is typically tied to the number of refugees served.
When arrivals drop, so does the financial support needed to sustain staff, programming and long-term integration services for those already in the country.
At the same time, global displacement is rising. There are more than 40 million refugees worldwide, nearly double the number a decade ago, according to the United Nations.
For programs like Global Roots, which supports refugees already living in the U.S., the consequences are less visible but no less significant. While participants are no longer newly arrived, many still rely on community-based programs for food access, supplemental income and social support.
Without continued funding, Wilder said, those programs may disappear even as the need remains.
Local struggles
Lutheran Family Services is far from the only organization in Nebraska to suffer from changing immigration policy.
At an October 2025 meeting of the New Americans Task Force, Catholic Social Services reported that roughly 300 refugee clients were affected by budget cuts, according to Poe Dee, director of refugee and immigration services.
Organizations that once relied heavily on federal funding are now being forced to scale back services, seek private donations or reconsider their long-term viability.
The unprecedented level of funding cuts has caused rising uncertainty and concern both across the state and the nation, said Rose Margrave, director of development and strategic analysis at the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement.
Mor Meh, a refugee from Thailand, has been with the Global Roots program since 2021. She said she has lived in the U.S. for over a decade, but only recently joined Global Roots where she learned technical farming skills and sustainable living.
Photo courtesy of Lutheran Family Services.
This isn’t just a bump in the road for refugee programming, according to Wilder with Global Roots. While there can be hope for policy change in the future, there are refugees in Nebraska who need help now and can’t wait for federal funding to possibly come back, she said.
Lutheran Family Services received nearly $29 million in contributions and grants in 2024, according to the organization’s most recently available federal tax filing, with the bulk of that coming from government sources.
The Omaha-based nonprofit reported more than $22 million in funds from federal and state grants. Its community-based services division — which includes refugee resettlement, immigration legal support, anti-human trafficking efforts, global language programs and economic empowerment initiatives — cost over $15 million to operate.
With the loss of the majority of the public grant money, Lutheran Family Services had or is scheduled to cut some of its refugee services.
Many other nonprofits are facing similar challenges.
The Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement lost millions of dollars in funding because of the federal government’s funding freeze, and subsequently cut a number of its programs dedicated to refugee resettlement, according to Der Yang, director of refugee services.
Of the four resettlement agencies in the state, only Lutheran Family Services is actively resettling refugees.
Despite the funding cuts and decision by most to pause resettlement efforts, each organization said it continues working to fulfill their respective missions, helping migrants thrive in the Cornhusker state.
However, the cuts and resulting fallout are not limited to these four.
Juniper Refuge, a small Christian nonprofit based in Lincoln, has an annual operating budget of less than $300,000. Unlike larger agencies, it received no public grant funding in 2024 but now faces increased competition for private donations as larger organizations shift their fundraising strategies.
Omaha Center for Refugee & Immigrant Services Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to serving and empowering immigrants and refugees in Omaha, gets the majority of its funding from grants, including federal and state money. Without that support, it may be forced to shut down.
Despite facing various roadblocks, refugee service providers say they are trying to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape by shifting toward community partnerships, private fundraising and smaller-scale programming models.
“We need to evolve,” Wilder said, pointing to efforts to reimagine programs like Global Roots in a more sustainable form.
There’s still a lot of uncertainty, Yang said. It is unclear what future funding will look like or how policies will continue to change, but the need for refugee services in Nebraska isn’t going away.
For now, people like Rasaily continue to help other refugees despite an unpredictable future.
“Today, I feel proud that I am able to work professionally with people in the community and help others who are going through similar experiences,” Rasaily said. “My journey has taught me the importance of kindness, community support, hard work, and staying connected with others.”