Alaska refugee arrivals fell from 155 to 4 after federal halt

Refugee resettlement in Alaska has nearly stopped this year. Four refugees arrived in the state over the past eleven months, down from 155 in fiscal 2024.

State Department figures show all four came from South Africa and arrived in December 2025. No refugee arrived in Alaska in any month from January through August 2026.

The figures, for the fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2025, through Aug. 31, 2026, come from the State Department's Refugee Processing Center. Alaska does not appear at all in the companion report on Special Immigrant Visa arrivals, which mostly covers Afghans and Iraqis who aided the U.S.

Arrivals to Alaska rose from 12 in fiscal 2021 to a peak of 155 in fiscal 2024, then fell to 54 in fiscal 2025. Nationally, arrivals rose from 11,411 in fiscal 2021 to 100,034 in fiscal 2024, then fell to 38,102 in fiscal 2025. Through August of this fiscal year, the national total stands at 12,904, all but three from Africa.

The drop lines up with President Donald Trump's Executive Order 14163, which suspended refugee entry effective "12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on January 27, 2025." National arrivals went from 10,285 in January 2025 to 2 in February.

In Pacito v. Trump, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle enjoined parts of the order and by May 2025 ordered the government to resume specified refugee processing and restore related funding. The Ninth Circuit later granted a partial stay but left protection in place for refugees conditionally approved before Jan. 20, 2025. Plaintiffs argued the order unlawfully dismantled the program; the government defended the suspension as within presidential authority.

Alaska's fiscal 2025 numbers reflect that break: 50 of the state's 54 arrivals came between October 2024 and January 2025, from countries including Venezuela, Colombia and Somalia. The only arrivals after the suspension were four South Africans in August 2025.

Executive Order 14204 made it federal policy to "promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees" from South Africa. The fiscal 2026 determination set a national ceiling of 7,500 refugees, to be allocated "primarily" among Afrikaners and other discrimination victims. A May 2026 emergency determination raised the ceiling to 17,500, with additional admissions allocated among Afrikaners. National arrivals climbed afterward, with 2,528 in July and 2,646 in August. None went to Alaska.

A September 2025 presidential determination moved refugee resettlement grants from the State Department to Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Separately, under a federal eligibility change, refugees and asylees, people granted asylum after arrival, are not among the groups keeping full Medicaid coverage after Oct. 1.

The federal records do not say who resettled the four December arrivals, where they live, or whether they came as families or individuals, nor what happened to resettlement staff or funding in Alaska. The arrivals reports are tables without commentary; no Alaska resettlement agency, state health official or school district appears in that material.

The fiscal year ends Sept. 30. September figures will show whether any of the added admissions reach Alaska.