Donald Trump paused the refugee resettlement program in the US earlier this year.

Now on to a different topic.

A federal judge has set blocked that pause.

That means thousands of people previously expected to come to the US from war torn countries are left in limbo.

Our June Laslo spoke with a resettlement group in Louisville prior to the federal judge's ruling.

To discuss the impact.

Many refugees call Kentucky home.

In fact, the state hosts the fourth largest per capita population of refugees in the nation.

The Commonwealth welcomed 2000 new Kentuckians in the 2024 fiscal year.

That means the effect of President Donald Trump's order to pause refugee arrivals was felt immediately.

So we here at Catholic Charities had about 90 people who were booked on flights who had gone through multiple years of security screening and in many cases were reunifying here in the United States, in Louisville, with family members who are already here, many of them were children.

And so those 90 ish folks had their flights canceled.

We were expecting them the end of January, beginning of February.

As I said, many of them were rejoining family members who are already here.

But for those who were not, you know, we were finding them places to live, getting everything ready for their arrival.

And now they are still in the refugee camps with no assurance as to when they may be able to leave.

Diego Crutcher describes the arduous process people go through often waiting years in camps in places like Syria, Congo and Burma before coming to the United States.

Really, refugees, unlike any other immigrants to the United States, are both heavily screened and really pre-selected.

I think that's something that people often don't understand.

Less than 1% of the displaced people in the world will be resettled as refugees, even with resettlement.

Suspended Crutcher says.

There's still work to be done.

I anticipate that we will continue to provide service to folks who are here in the country.

Throughout the Trump administration, just as we did through the first Trump administration, Catholic Charities has resettled refugees for 50 years.

That includes Vietnams refugees during the 1970s and Bosnians in the 1990s.

Kentucky is one of the most successful refugee resettlement programs in the country.

These are people who are excited to be coming to the United States no matter where they go, right?

It's a harder sell sometimes to convince people within the country that Kentucky is a really great place to relocate.

But once these folks are here, they contribute to our community in all kinds of ways.

By mid-April, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to decide whether to continue refugee resettlement in the United States.

For now, refugees hopes of coming to Kentucky are in limbo.

With reporting from Brennan, everyone.

I'm June Lefler for Kentucky Edition.

Thank you, Brennan and June.

Kentucky has refugee resettlement programs in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Covington and Owensboro.