HIAS, which emerged as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1903 and traces its origins to the 1880s, had to fire or furlough more than 100 people in its U.S. office—some 40% of its global staff—due to funding cuts for refugee work under the Trump administration, Mark Hetfield, the HIAS president, told eJewishPhilanthropy.
Hetfield also had to shutter many of the HIAS offices overseas, he told the publication, adding that by Oct. 1, when the U.S. government’s fiscal year ends, “we’ll be a very different agency with a much smaller footprint.”
“We never, ever thought, in our worst-case scenario planning, that they would literally rip up all of our contracts and grant agreements,” Hetfield told eJewishPhilanthropy.
The HIAS leader also told the publication that the group had to let more than 20% of its staff go previously “after a financial error caused them to go over budget by more than $20 million.”
HIAS has “also launched and joined a series of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s executive orders,” per eJewishPhilanthropy.
