Photo: Ty Wright

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Kamal Sharma, right, of Columbus, embraces his relative Til Gurung, a Bhutanese refugee from Nepal, as he and other relatives arrive at the John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Two families of Bhutanese refugees met with their family members at the Columbus Airport after an 18 hour flight from Nepal where the families lived in the Beldangi Refugee Camp in Jhumpa, Nepal. Bhutanese refugees, most who are Buddhist or Hindu and were expelled during a government-led ethnic cleansing campaign against ethnic Nepalis in the early 1990s. (AP Photo/Ty Wright) less

Photo: Ty Wright

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Fadumo Hussein, 45, a Muslim refugee from Somalia, listens during an interview in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. Weeks before the announcement of President Donald Trumps ban on arrivals from several, mostly Muslim countries, Hussein's parents, who are 75 and 76, had been approved for entry to the U.S. Their arrival was scheduled for February 2017. More than a year later, they remain stuck in Uganda, their case on hold. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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This photo provided by her daughter shows Fadumo Hussein, right, with her 75-year-old mother, Halima Shobe, during a trip to Africa in December 2017. Though the Trump administration's travel ban has made it difficult for refugees from Somalia to come to the U.S., Hussein is still hoping her parents, who have health problems, can eventually join her in Ohio one day. (AP Photo/Afnan Salem) less

Photo: Afnan Salem

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Harka Gurung, a 36-year-old refugee from Bhutan, lifts her 8-year-old daughter, Eden Gurung, as she arrives from school in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Harka, her husband and daughter were the first of their family to arrive from a refugee camp in Nepal. Her parents and a sister joined them in February after a four-year separation. Columbus is home to about 20,000 Bhutanese immigrants, representing the largest Bhutanese community in the United States. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Afnan Salem, 19, waits for her class to start at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. Salem, who is a refugee from Somalia, is hoping to soon be reunited with her grandparents, who are living in Kenya. However, their fate is uncertain because of the Trump administration's ban on refugees from mostly Muslim countries such as Somalia. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Men gather to pray at a mosque in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2018. Most of the congregants at this mosque are Somali refugees. The greater Columbus area has about 40,000 Somali residents, one of the largest concentrations of people from the African country in the the United States. That population is, however, growing much more slowly now, as the Trump administrations travel ban has cut the flow of refugees from Somalia and other mostly Muslim countries. Federal statistics show that about 15 percent of refugees admitted into this country are Muslim, down from 47 percent a year ago. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Moza Ausa, a 4-year-old refugee from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, stands in the family's new apartment in Columbus, Ohio, during the early morning hours of Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. The family, including six children, had just flown to Columbus from Africa. The DRC is not included in the Trump administration's travel ban. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Syrian teenager Hasib Rifat Moustafa poses for a photo in the apartment he shares with his sister's family in the Middle East on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. In July 2016, Alizabet Yandem and four of her children joined her husband, Rifat Moustafa, a lawyer who said he fled his native Syria after he was jailed and beaten with an electric cable for criticizing the Assad regime's record on human rights. But their son, Hasib, remained in the Middle East after officials held up his petition. Moustafa suspected an objection to his son's malformed left arm and hand, which need surgery. But the family expected approval within months. Then the new administration took office, and the case stalled. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) less

Photo: Maya Alleruzzo

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Pema Yanzon, right, places a momo dumpling on a tray in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. The Tibetan-Nepali style food, sold at the Mom Ghar restaurant, is filled with chicken, pork or vegetables and is popular both with immigrants and native Ohioans. Yanzon, age 62, came to this country from Tibet in 2008. Her coworker, Momatha Rai, left, is a 23-year-old Bhutanese refugee who came to Columbus by way of Nepal in 2014. Columbus has the largest Bhutanese population in the country. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Rifat Moustafa, a Syrian immigrant, greets his 16-year-old son, Hasib Moustafa Rifat, living in the Middle East, during a video chat session at his home in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. At right is his wife, Alizabet Yandem. Hasib is still in the Middle East and has been separated from his family for more than 18 months as he awaits a U.S. visa. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Syrian teenager Hasib Rifat Mousafa plays with his niece in the apartment he shares with his sister's family in the Middle East on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. In July 2016, Alizabet Yandem and four of her children joined her husband, Rifat Moustafa, a lawyer who said he fled his native Syria after he was jailed and beaten with an electric cable for criticizing the Assad regime's record on human rights. But their son, Hasib, remained in the Middle East after officials held up his petition. Moustafa suspected an objection to his son's malformed left arm and hand, which need surgery. But the family expected approval within months. Then the new administration took office, and the case stalled. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) less

Photo: Maya Alleruzzo

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Rupen Darjee, 21, talks about his life as a refugee during an interview in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Darjee, whose family is from Bhutan, was born in a refugee camp in Nepal. He now operates a box-making machine at a Columbus food processing plant. Though he is Christian, and not from a country impacted by President's travel ban, he says some of his family members, including two brothers, have had trouble getting to this country. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Rifat Moustafa, a Syrian immigrant, takes a smoke break outside his Columbus, Ohio, home on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. His 16-year-old son, Hasib Moustafa Rifat, has been separated from his family for more than 18 months as he awaits a U.S. visa. Moustafa, an international lawyer who says he was tortured for protesting human rights violations, was granted asylum and his wife and four other children followed in 2016, before President Trump was elected. They were hoping Hasib could come shortly after, but resettlement officials say the Trump administrations travel ban on refugees from mostly Muslim countries has very likely caused further delays. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Ten-year-old Syrian Amjud Moustafa Rifat uses his shirt to wipe away tears on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio, as he and his 18-year-old sister, Fatima, listen to a song their brother, Hasib, wrote for the family. Hasib, 16, is still in the Middle East and has been separated from his family for more than 18 months as he awaits a U.S. visa. Their father, Rifat Moustafa, an international lawyer who says he was tortured for protesting human rights violations, was granted asylum and his wife and four other children followed in 2016, before President Trump was elected. They were hoping Hasib could come shortly after, but resettlement officials say the Trump administrations travel ban on refugees from mostly Muslim countries has very likely caused further delays. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Jhuma Acharya works in his office on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio. A refugee himself, he is now a resettlement caseworker for the Community Refugee & Immigration Services, where he helps new arrivals from Nepal, Bhutan and other countries. He says watching refugee families reuniting at airports is a favorite part of his job. "They all are united by love," he says. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Man Sing Sutam, a 48-year-old refugee from Bhutan, practices writing in English during a U.S. citizenship class in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. Columbus has the largest Bhutanese population in the United States. Most of them came to this country by way of Nepal, where they lived in refugee camps after being forced out of their tiny Himalayan kingdom. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Amina Olow, a refugee from Somalia, looks at photos of two of her eldest daughters while siting with two of her other children in her Columbus, Ohio, home on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. The girls, Neemotallah, now 12, and Nastexo, now 9, live in Kenya with other family members. It has been 10 years since their mother has seen them. "I never thought it would be this long," Olow says of her separation from her daughters, who she hopes can join her despite the fact that Somalia is on a list of countries impacted by the Trump administration travel ban. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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A shopper pushes a cart through the Sagara International Grocery in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. Immigrants, including refugees, are changing the landscape of Columbus, which, among other things, has the largest Bhutanese population in the United States. The Columbus area also is home to a large concentration of Somali refugees. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Fadumo Hussein, 45, left, talks with her friend, Pam Lang, center, and grandson, Rashed Mohammed, 4, at Hussein's home in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. Hussein, a Muslim refugee from Somalia, has been separated from her elderly parents, who are in Africa and having difficulty getting to the U.S. because of President Trump's travel ban. She met Lang when her daughters, including Afnan Salem, background, helped Lang and other members of a church with a homework program for refugees. "Fadumo calls us family and we call her family," Lang says. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Members of a recently arrived family of refugees from Bhutan wait in a long line outside the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. The family can apply for various forms of government assistance, though their goal is to find work quickly. A 2015 report found that refugees contribution to the central Ohio economy totals more than $1.6 billion annually, including the goods and services they provide through their work and the money they spend. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Ausa Emedi, right, examines a toilet in his family's new apartment in Columbus, Ohio, during the early morning hours of Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, as his caseworker, Eric Rosingiza, explains to family members how it and shower work. The family of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, including six children, had just flown to Columbus. The DRC has been plagued with political unrest and is not included in the Trump administration's travel ban. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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Devi Gurung, a 28-year-old refugee from Bhutan, waits for her niece to arrive from school in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, just days after Gurung's arrival in this country. "I am lucky," Gurung says of her chance to come to the United States after spending years in a Nepali refugee camp. Columbus is home to about 20,000 Bhutanese immigrants, representing the largest Bhutanese community in the United States. (AP Photo/Martha Irvine) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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This 2013 family photo shows three brothers, from left, Ibrahim, Hasib and Amjud Moustafa Rifat, in the Middle East, less than a year after their family fled war-torn Syria. United States authorities granted the younger boys visas so they could travel with their parents to Columbus, Ohio, where they now live. But Hasib is still waiting for his paperwork to come through. Their father, Rifat Moustafa, says they will have to move to another country if they can't bring Hasib to the U.S. by the summer of 2018. (AP Photo/Moustafa Family) less

Photo: Martha Irvine

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President Donald Trump's policies have sharply cut the number of refugees coming to Albany and other cities across the nation, according to an AP analysis.

Starting early last year, Trump's ban on arrivals from several, mostly Muslim, countries put the cap on refugee admissions and suspended a program to reunite families split in the resettlement pipeline.

In Albany, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants resettled 36 refugees and 79 Special Immigrants Visas from Oct. 1, 2017 to March 15 — about 30 percent of the 390 the agency predicted in December. The AP analysis did not include the Special Immigrant Visas, a program for Iraqi and Afghan people who worked with or on behalf of the U.S. government.

In a typical year, USCRI-Albany resettles about 400 refugees and immigrants — second only to Houston within the nationwide USCRI network, USCRI-Albany Director Jill Peckenpaugh said. That is almost 10 percent of the more than 5,000 refugees New York resettles each year.

Peckenpaugh said the final numbers of refugees resettled in Albany are unfortunate.

"We just haven't been getting that many refugees, only about 20 percent of what our capacity is," she said. "Albany remains such a welcoming place of refugees and immigrants."

The entire U.S. is on track to take in the smallest number of refugees since Congress passed a law in 1980 creating the modern resettlement system. At the current rate, the country will take in about 21,000 refugees this fiscal year, well below the cap of 45,000 set by the administration and roughly a quarter of those granted entry in the final year of Barack Obama's presidency.

The administration is also cutting the resettlement system itself, telling executives of nine private agencies they must close any office expected to place fewer than 100 refugees this year.

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Trump's refugee policy

Late last year, the Supreme Court temporarily ruled to allow full implementation of the third version of Trump's travel ban. The ban restricts citizens from six Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Libya, Chad, Somalia, Syria and Yemen — as well as North Korea and Venezuela, from obtaining visas to work, study or visit the U.S. Unlike previous iterations of the travel ban, the latest ban also restricts those with bona fide relationships to U.S. citizens.

A federal appeals court ruled in February that the latest travel ban is unconstitutional for discrimination against Islam, echoing another federal appeals decision in December. The Supreme Court is set to hear another case on the travel ban in April, but the ban can be fully implemented in the meantime, the effects of which have been seen nationwide.

For thousands of refugee families already building new lives in the U.S., Trump's policy changes are playing out in decidedly unnerving and uneven ways. The restrictions have kept many families apart, while allowing some to reunite, sorting people by country and, effectively, by religion.

When Somali refugee Fadumo Hussein and her daughters joined protesters at an airport in Columbus, Ohio, last January to protest the administration's restrictions on arrivals, they did so for very personal reasons.

Weeks before the ban was announced, Hussein's parents, who are 75 and 76, had been approved for entry to the U.S. Their arrival was scheduled for last February. More than a year later, they remain stuck in Uganda, their case on hold.

Watching neighbors welcome their own family members from the predominately Buddhist country Bhutan, Hussein's been "happy for them because they were able to reunite," but also confused.

"What is different about us, like Somalis or the other countries that are being banned," her daughter, Afnan Salem, asked, "when we are all coming for the same reasons?"

In citing security concerns to exclude refugees from certain countries, the administration has skewed the ethnic and religious makeup of the much smaller number allowed entry, said Kathleen Newland, a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

In the first two months of this year, the U.S. accepted 49 refugees from Somalia, 19 from Iraq and five from Syria. That is down sharply from the 1,094 Somalis, 1,860 Iraqis and 1,991 Syrian refugees admitted in the first two months of 2017.

U.S. officials say there is no preference for refugees of one religion over another: "The United States is committed to assisting people of all religions, ethnicities, and nationalities who are fleeing persecution, violence, and other drivers of displacement," a State Department spokeswoman said in a written response to questions. The administration resumed the program to reunify refugee families in December, she said, responding to a judge's injunction.

In the last four months, New York has seen only two refugees from Somalia, six from Syria and two from Iraq. In the same four-month period a year ago, New York state received 412 refugees from Somalia, 334 from Syria and 181 from Iraq, according to the AP analysis.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan stressed the economic value of refugees and immigrants to the city, where one out of every 10 residents was born in a foreign country.

Last year, Sheehan declared Albany a sanctuary city, which instructs government and law enforcement officials not to investigate or report someone's immigration status to federal agencies without a compelling reason, protecting immigrants and refugees from deportation if they are picked up for minor infractions or make a police report.

"I am told time and time again, 'I can't find people to fill jobs.' And we have an aging population," Sheehan said. "If we want a healthy and thriving region, we need to encourage immigration."

Times Union staffers Massarah Mikati and Cathleen F. Crowley contributed to this report.

Refugee numbers decline in Albany and U.S.

Analysis shows decline in those who seek safe harbor in Albany following new Trump policy

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Refugee numbers decline in Albany and U.S.

Analysis shows decline in those who seek safe harbor in Albany following new Trump policy

Updated 10:42 am, Monday, March 26, 2018

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