SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- President Donald Trump's plan for a moratorium on refugee resettlement in the United States had a chilling effect Thursday on a Syracuse nonprofit that has helped thousands of refugees start a new life in the city.

InterFaith Works of Central New York said Trump's planned executive order will force the organization to shut down most of its Center for New Americans and lay off or cut back hours for 14 to 15 staffers.

The president's order, which could come as early as this afternoon, would also place in limbo the 40 to 50 refugees per month who have been granted U.S. State Department permission to resettle in Syracuse through the local program.

"It will have a very significant effect on InterFaith Works," the organization's President and CEO Beth Broadway said of Trump's executive action. "With no new refugees coming, the resettlement part of our operation will effectively be shut down."

The organization has resettled an average of 300 to 500 refugees each year since 1981 in the Syracuse area. Refugees are given legal status and allowed to resettle in the United States after proving that they experienced life-threatening persecution for religious, political, or other reasons prior to fleeing their home country.

Trump's administration on Wednesday indicated in documents obtained by The Washington Post that it would cease the resettlement of Syrian refugees indefinitely, and would place a 120-day hold on all other refugee admission and resettlement while vetting procedures are reviewed.

President Donald Trump is expected to take executive action ordering an indefinite ban on the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States, and a 120-day ban on all other refugee admissions. In this June 13, 2015 photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, Turkish soldiers bottom, walk as Syrian refugees wait on the Syrian side of the border.

Broadway said the order would have a significant impact on her organization, which also helped resettle about 90 Syrian refugees in the Syracuse area over the past year.

"I am looking at some very significant cuts in our refugee resettlement staff as long as that moratorium remains in effect," Broadway said. "Anybody that's not on the ground or in the air on the way to us at this moment, will not be allowed to come."

InterFaith Works will continue to provide employment and other social services to those refugees that it has already helped resettle in the Syracuse area. But Broadway said it seems harsh for the Trump administration to stop others from seeking safe refuge in the United States.

"We know the global refugee crisis for Syrians is quite severe," Broadway said. "It's not only a humanitarian crisis, and will set up our nation to appear as isolationist, but will go against everything that our ideals stand for."

Broadway said she does not understand the explanation behind the moratorium, adding refugees to the United States already face an intense vetting program that includes biometric screening.

"They have been carefully vetted already," she said of the refugees approved for resettlement. "I don't know what more a new administration can do. I am confused about what we are trying to accomplish over these next 120 days, particularly in light of the global crisis."

InterFaith Works plans to appeal to elected officials, community leaders and faith leaders for help in pushing back against the executive order.

InterFaith Works and Catholic Charities are the two largest organizations in Central New York that work to resettle refugees in the region. Catholic Charities officials had no immediate comment Thursday on the status of their program.

The two agencies work to have refugees self-sufficient and employed within 90 days of arrival in Central New York.

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