The Rev Andrew Stehlik of Rutgers Presbyterian church had been expecting to pick up the Khoja family on Monday around 4pm.

The Syrian-Kurdish family of eight had been sponsored by Stehlik’s church in upper Manhattan. But on Monday morning, he was informed by the family via WhatsApp that they had been told they would no longer be flying from Istanbul to the US.

“It’s just absolutely un-American,” Stehlik said of Donald Trump’s indefinite ban on Syrian refugees, which had caught the Khojas in its net. “To us, as Jews and Christians, it is also against our moral and religious fiber that this kind of targeting of Muslims is happening.” The church held a silent vigil for refugees on Monday night.

Last May, Stehlik’s church had sponsored the arrival in the US of another Syrian family, the Abdulhamids, through Church World Service, a resettlement agency that helps connect Syrian refugee families to sponsors in the US.

Church members housed the family of six and helped them secure work and acclimate to American life. One of the congregants, a retired teacher, gave the family English lessons, and they helped the father secure a job as a valet, while the mother earned an income through catering dinners for the church.

A small coalition of churches and synagogues in the city formed around the refugee family with each pitching in wherever help was needed. Stehlik’s congregation of just over 100 members raised $40,000 last year to help with their resettlement, and another $10,000 so far this year.

The church decided it wanted to help another family, and Trump’s election victory added a sense of urgency.

“The day after the election we all met,” said David Mammen, the church’s director of administration. “We said we want to co-sponsor another family, the sooner the better, preferably before January 20.”

The church was informed that the Khoja family would be coming to the US a month ago through Church World Service. They secured a lease for an apartment with a view of Manhattan for the family in Union City, New Jersey, with the help of Church World Service. Members put together a list of what they needed for the apartment, which was shared online, and they were flooded with donations of furniture and house supplies. Within three days they had everything they needed for the Khojas’ imminent arrival on 30 January.

On Friday Trump signed his executive order banning Syrian refugees from coming to the US indefinitely, while all other refugees were halted from entering the country for 120 days. The ban also blocks citizens of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia from entering the country for 90 days.

Even after Trump signed his executive order, members of the church went to the apartment on Saturday to finish preparing it for the Khojas, still maintaining hope. They packed the wardrobe and drawers with donated clothes they hoped would fit the parents and their six children. On Sunday, Mammen said he, Stehlik and the head of the church’s refugee taskforce spoke to the father of the Khoja family through an interpreter for the first time.



It was an emotional conversation, Mammen recalled, as they refused to give up hope that the family would arrive, and were buoyed by late-night decisions from judges ordering stays on deportations. He explained what role the church would play in their lives, and Stehlik said they would provide all the spiritual and emotional support they needed. “We all had tears in our eyes,” Mammen said. “It was very emotional.”

“They were absolutely confused,” Stehlik said. “They didn’t know anything. The agency which is helping to bring refugees over – they were confused. No one had any solid data.”

The family had already given up hope on arriving to the US but were convinced to revisit the office arranging their trip from Istanbul to the US on Monday morning. They were promptly told they would no longer be coming to the United States.

The church is now hoping to join any legal challenges against the ban, and pushing for Church World Service to join with the American Civil Liberties Union. They are desperately trying to find a way to get the family a direct flight from Istanbul to Boston, where a judge’s order against the ban is considered the country’s most far-reaching.

While Stehlik was aware that Trump’s election victory would have a negative impact on refugees entering the country, he was surprised that the changes had happened so quickly.

“We did not expect these difficulties to be so immediate or so severe,” he said. Anybody who wanted to give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt had now been proved wrong, he said.

“Now we know, it is just absolutely catastrophic.”