Neighbors' Annual Report 2025
Dear Neighbor,
2025 was a year of fear, frustration and dread for immigrants.
All year, Neighbors for Refugees fought to protect and defend fully vetted, legal newcomers to keep their families intact and thriving in our community, while the federal government has slammed the door closed on refugees; detaining, deporting and separating those already here and protected by long-standing law.
ICE’s heavily-armed and masked troops have not just flooded Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago, they have also been spotted in New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Port Chester and Yonkers. Yes, ICE is already nearby, and Neighbors is actively helping at least three of our families respond to “ICE check-in letters.”
After such a tough year, it can be easy to get disillusioned and consider giving up. But, Neighbors is in the business of hope and has been since its founding back in 2016. Whenever I start to lose hope,
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2025 Highlights
We resettled an additional three families (16 individuals) before the inauguration in January – one from Nicaragua and two from Afghanistan. All three are seeking asylum. We helped them find apartments, new jobs and schools, and start their new lives.
We funded legal services and support for 16 individuals from 6 families. We engaged 12 different attorneys, paid and pro-bono, to analyze our families’ legal risks and defend them at ICE Check-ins.
We held our second gala in October with a theme of “Defend and Thrive,” which attended by about 100 or our supporters.
The evening honored long-time partner Larchmont Temple. One-hundred supporters enjoyed good food and company while learning more about the legal risks our clients face. We raised nearly $125,000 at this single event, which will help us continue serving and supporting our families.
We provided 38 Road to Independence (R2I) grants (e.g., education, food, medical, and living expenses) helping 116 individuals from 22 separate countries. We also provided Food and Housing Insecurity (FHI) grants to 150 families, providing 500 meals to those in need.
Approximately 400 individuals and faith organizations donated nearly $500,000 to us last year, exceeding our fundraising goal by over 50%. We are thankful that so many believed in our all-volunteer mission and generously funded our work in 2025, and prepared us for the challenges of 2026.
Thanks for your trust and support!
REFUGEE CRISIS WORLDWIDE
& THE U.S. REPSONSE
Refugees
Judging by the United States’ response to the growing worldwide refugee crisis, we have mainly pretended that it doesn’t exist. While the the number of refugees and other displaced persons has grown more than seven-fold from 2000 to 2025, the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. has recently shrunk by 50% depending, and in 2026, the Trump Administration has decreased the cap on refugee admissions even further to just 7,500 (and reserved most of that for white South Afrikaans and Europeans).
Asylum Seekers
The trends for asylum seekers follows the same basic pattern. The number of asylees worldwide increased eight-fold, while number of asylum grants in the U.S. stayed flat until the last two years of the Biden Administration.
Historically, up to 2015, we granted asylum to just under 3% of the world’s asylees each year. Starting in 2016, our share of asylees began to drop as we failed to keep pace with the growth in the number of asylees.
We hit bottom at 0.4% in 2021 and our share grew back up to 1.2% in 2024. Given the current Administration’s attitude towards immigrants, we expect that the number of asylum grants to have dropped precipitously in 2025 and our share of the world’s asylees to drop back to under 1%. We anticipate that situation will stay this way until at least 2028.
You can make a difference by:
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Donating to Neighbors, or other organizations supporting refugees or to ACLU and similar organizations
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Making your voice heard – let your representatives know you support refugees and asylum seekers
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Getting your hands “dirty” by volunteering
NEIGHBORS‘ PLAN FOR 2026
Defend & Thrive
The current administration has changed the game on well-established laws and protocols that protected and welcomed legal immigrants; it has:
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Revoked Humanitarian Parole status and Temporary Protective Status for many countries
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Declared 29 countries off-limits, including Afghanistan, Venezuela and Haiti; and has targeted refugees and asylees from those nations for detention and deportation
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Fired experienced immigration judges supportive of refugees, and hired less qualified, less sympathetic judges, while clogging courts with backlogs
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Eliminated the right for release from detention on bond and left expensive habeas corpus petitions as one of the only means to avoid unwarranted detention
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Threatened to deport refugees who haven’t yet applied for green cards
We expect more ICE check-in letters and heightened ICE activity locally in 2026, including possible seizures at workplaces and food pantries.
We expect more accelerated asylum hearings from less cooperative judges or, worse, the loss of the tight to hear altogether.
Recent Neighbors Experiences:
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Provided representation for three families summoned to ICE check-ins—none have been detained
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Helped members of a family of five file to get their visas
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Amended the status of a student who couldn’t return home at the end of her visa
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Gathered critical legal documentation for all families into our protected database
In response, Neighbors is supplying trained volunteers to help our families sort through the legal processes and gather all important paperwork. We are also providing funds so our families can engage legal representation to review their cases, accompany them to hearings, and prepare habeas petitions, as needed.
We’ve teamed up with a number of law firms specializing in immigrant law and so far over a dozen of our asylee families have had their initial risk assessments, which will be used to prepare their cases.
Our focus in 2026 will be on our existing families who are under incredible stress due to risk of detention and deportation, and the loss of their SNAP and WIC benefits, difficulty in getting work permits approved or renewed, and increased employer hesitancy to hire, extend hours or promote refugees and asylees, and fear of ICE actions. Beginning in October, many will lose their eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid.
In response, Neighbors has:
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budgeted a significant increase in financial support for our existing families
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reached out to all our families with a dedicated volunteer to work with them over the coming months to assess and respond to their financial needs
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streamlined the process for families to apply for financial assistance
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continued our Road to Independence and Food & Housing insecurity grants
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Beefed-up our employment committee to help our families find new jobs or upgrade their existing ones
We are not going this alone. We are working with other organizations reach to other needy families already here and to help change attitudes and immigration laws to help keep our promises to those Afghans who fought alongside our troops who the current Administration has abandoned.
Meet a few of the families we’re trying to defend
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Although he hopes to someday attend college, a young man is currently working two jobs to help support his parents and 15-year-old sister.
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Several of the women we have assisted were not permitted to learn to drive in
Afghanistan, but, with our support, have secured their learner’s permits and taken
driving lessons. -
One young Afghan woman, the mother of two children, is enrolled in a course to
get more practical experience, in order to enhance her ability to work as a
Certified Medical Assistant. Her husband has arranged his work schedule to
assist with childcare on the days she has classes. -
An Afghan father has secured a full-time job, with benefits, in Food Services at a
Westchester hospital, where he is often the chef's first choice for overtime work. -
A young woman — who was forbidden to work in Afghanistan — has secured a
full-time job, with benefits, at a local warehouse store.She and her husband recently
welcomed their first child!
GRANT PROGRAMS
Two Neighbors’ grant programs, Road to Independence and Food and Housing Insecurity, provided financial assistance to families beyond those that we helped resettle in our area.
Road To Independence (R2I) Grants
We provided $33,685 in R2I Grants in 2025, part of roughly $160,000 allotted over the seven-year history of the program. Road to Independence grants began in 2019 to assist refugee neighbors who had been resettled by other organizations, but whose support had ended. We soon broadened the scope of our grant-giving, for example, driving lessons, specialized training, childcare, and government fees (such as renewing their work permit). The program has grown to an average of nearly 40 grants per year (helping an average of 96 individuals) since 2021.
Food & Housing Insecurity (FHI) Grants
We provided $15,459 in FHI Grants in 2025, bringing our total to over $120,000 given in the last six years. It was originally established as the COVID Relief Fund, to give refugee families money to buy groceries, pay utilities or rent. We changed the name to the Food & Housing Insecurity Grant program to better align with its purpose. These grants (ranging from $100 to $500 per family) give families a little extra help to make ends meet.
To ensure that we were addressing true need with our grant programs, Neighbors requires that any grant application comes through a recognized organization (e.g., Elena’s Light in CT or Community Resource Center in Mamaroneck).
In total, between the two grant programs, we’ve helped nearly 700 families (>1,600 individuals) over the past seven years. These programs will continue in 2026 with $48,000 earmarked.
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I think about our impact beyond just the annual numbers –
how many families we serve, how much financial
support we share, or how much money and time our
donors and volunteers contribute. Instead, I focus on
how we’ve fundamentally improved the fortunes of
our families by supporting their new lives and hopes
within our borders.
Neighbors has now pivoted our mission towards supporting
and defending a total of 36 refugee families who are already here
and are threatened by government actions. That takes not just a village, as the saying goes, but a whole, fully-engaged community of people like you.
We are an all-volunteer organization (no paid employees) with boots on the ever-shifting ground. Our volunteers still drive family members to medical appointments, tutor children and adults in English, and help newcomers manage their budgets. This past year, our volunteers also delivered groceries to families afraid of going to food pantries and advised employed refugees about ICE risks in the workplace.
After receiving support for immediate legal defense, one of our family members emailed us:
“I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your support and kindness. I truly appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to helping us. Your assistance made a significant difference.”
We can only echo this thoughtful message. Many thanks to you, and to all the generous and caring community members who stand with us and our refugee families in this very challenging time.
With gratitude,
Marc Morgenstern
President
OUR FINANCIALS
2026 Budget
We anticipate a 75% increase in spending in 2026, driven mainly by legal costs to defend our families from detention & deportation.
We also expect a significant increase in our resettlement costs to support existing families deal with the loss of SNAP, WIC and Medicaid, as well as the loss of or reduced employment.
Over the last 5 years, 94% of our expenditures have gone to our families (in 2026 it will be 96%).
We plan to increase our refugees support in 2026 because of the generosity of the nearly 400 donors who increased their giving in 2025 by 60% over 2024, especially in the last few months of the year. This late giving resulted in a significant surplus at the end of 2025, which we will draw down to fund the planned significant budget deficit in 2026. That said, we still increased our fundraising goal for 2026 by 25% to $400,000. We know that will only be possible because of the generosity of our supporters.
Neighbors for Refugees (P.O. Box 416, Larchmont, NY 10538) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Visit us at www.neighborsforrefugees.org for more information.