几十年来，美国在人道主义政策方面领先世界，为被压迫者建立了避难所，接纳了更多的人难民比所有其他国家的总和还多。
这一声誉在2006年被侵蚀唐纳德·特朗普他削减了难民超过80%的人被允许入境，加拿大取代美国成为安置逃离战争和迫害的人的第一名。
特朗普可以说改变了移居比任何一位美国总统都更有系统，用“美国第一”的信息刺激支持者，激怒批评者，批评者称他标志性的国内问题是狭隘的、排外的，甚至是种族主义的。
在11月的选举之前，美联社正在审查特朗普的一些最大的移民政策变化，从停止庇护到退出美国的人道主义角色。
随着创纪录的8000万人因战争和饥荒而流离失所，取消已有40年历史的难民计划的痛苦在世界范围内回荡。
其中包括一名伊拉克妇女，尽管她的父亲帮助了美国军队，但她无法前往美国；一名乌干达妇女，尽管法院达成和解，要求加快处理像她这样的案件，但她无法在西雅图附近与丈夫团聚。
“我的孩子每天晚上都在这里哭，我的妻子每天晚上都在乌干达哭，”刚果难民索福妮·比齐马纳说，她是一名美国永久居民，不知道为什么他的妻子没有和他们的家人在一起。“我需要她，孩子们也需要她。”
特朗普在其总统任期内每年都降低难民入境上限，到2021年降至1.5万人的创纪录低点。
国务院为这些削减辩护，称其在冠状病毒大流行期间保护了美国的就业。特朗普的高级顾问斯蒂芬·米勒(Stephen Miller)表示，政府一直寻求让难民在离家更近的地方定居，并努力解决导致他们逃离的危机。
“你不能通过美国国内的重新安置来解决这个问题。解决办法必须是外交政策，”米勒告诉美联社。
政府今年还缩小了资格范围，将选择哪些难民进行重新安置限制在某些类别，包括因宗教而受到迫害的人和因援助美国而面临危险的伊拉克人。
民主党议员谴责了较低的上限，并表示这一类别将许多最贫困的人排除在外。民主党人乔·拜登承诺，如果他在11月3日获胜，他将把每年的难民上限提高到12.5万人。
难民安置组织HIAS的主席马克·赫特菲尔德说，多达1000名准备旅行的难民可能没有资格，因为他们不属于其中一类。他说，例如，许多叙利亚人可能不再符合条件，因为没有一个类别适合逃离战争的人。
即使是那些有资格的人也看到他们的案件被搁置，因为已经广泛的审查措施已经变得极端。例如，根据国际难民援助项目，难民现在必须提供10年前的地址，这对于流亡者来说几乎是不可能的任务。
特朗普政府还取消了其他人道主义保护，如对逃离自然灾害或暴力的40万移民的临时保护地位。
根据一项计划，来自洪都拉斯、尼加拉瓜、海地、尼泊尔和叙利亚等国的人现在面临驱逐出境，该计划将于明年1月结束。其中有莉莉·蒙塔尔万，她在25年前16岁时独自从萨尔瓦多来到这里。
她住在迈阿密，有一个6岁的女儿和一个18岁的儿子，他们都是美国公民。她无法理解在萨尔瓦多抚养她的小女儿。他们的父亲去年被驱逐回秘鲁。
“我们有孩子，我们有家，我们是这个国家的一部分，”打扫房间和出售烘焙食品的蒙塔尔万说。
政府大幅减少非法和合法移民的努力引发了一系列诉讼。
在2月10日由西雅图联邦法院解决的一个案件中，刚果难民比齐马纳是原告，该案件要求政府加快处理约300个家庭的案件。但是在法律胜利后的八个多月，他仍然在等待他的妻子加入他，没有人能告诉他为什么。
自从2014年来到这里，比齐马纳在寻求家庭团聚的过程中每一步都遇到了障碍。
2016年一个儿子出生后，2017年10月，当特朗普政府暂停难民入境四个月，然后要求对即将在美国与家人团聚的配偶和子女进行更多审查时，其他人的大门砰地关上了。
在一名联邦法官于2017年12月限制了这些限制后，他的七个孩子被允许进入，但他们的母亲没有。帮助比齐马纳的重新安置机构国际救援委员会表示，延误的原因尚不清楚。
他不是唯一没有答案的人。
在全球范围内，一名父亲曾帮助美国军队的伊拉克妇女不知道她的案件为何停滞不前。她不愿透露姓名，因为担心她的家人仍有危险。
作为一名伊拉克政府官员，她的父亲曾与美国军队密切合作。由于这种关系，美国军医同意治疗她的两种罕见疾病，包括一种导致她的免疫系统攻击她的器官。
但她频繁访问美国基地，导致她在巴格达附近的民兵组织发出死亡威胁，她和家人于2016年逃到约旦。
这位51岁的母亲一直在等着去美国，她在纽约的锡拉丘兹有一个哥哥。她的家人已经接受了美国官员的采访，并完成了背景调查。
总部设在纽约的国际难民援助项目正在帮助她，但在2019年结案，因为它无能为力，社会工作者拉埃德·阿尔马萨里说。
他说:“我和这些人一起工作了三年，他们仍然没有做出决定，但这是一个有医疗问题的人的例子，她的家人帮助了美国军队，经历了这么多。”“我不明白它为什么没有前进。”
这位妇女仍然每隔几周给阿尔马萨里发短信询问消息。
她的家庭最初靠储蓄生活，然后依靠父母的帮助，直到她父亲去世，这种生活才告枯竭。她卖掉了一些黄金首饰来支付他们简朴公寓的租金。
时间过得太久了，她的联合国难民事务高级专员公署的身份证明文件已经过期，这意味着她再也无法证明自己在约旦的合法权利。她害怕被驱逐到伊拉克。
“这是我们在约旦的第五年，我们的钱快用完了，我们希望很快收到好消息，”这位妇女说。
在冠状病毒大流行期间，约旦75万多难民的生活变得更加艰难。许多人无法工作，甚至无法离开他们在安曼的社区，那里的官方检查站封锁了一些地区，以减缓疫情的蔓延。
社会工作者Almasri说，绝望已经变得如此严重，以至于有人试图自杀。
“人们感觉被卡住了，”阿尔马萨里说。“他们已经处于艰难的境地，现在他们只看到事情变得更糟。”
——
Under Trump, US no longer leads world on refugee protections
For decades, America led the world in humanitarian policies by creating a sanctuary for the oppressed, admitting more refugees annually than all other countries combined.
That reputation eroded during Donald Trump's presidency as he cut the number of refugees allowed in by more than 80%, and Canada replaced the U.S. as No. 1 for resettling people fleeing war and persecution.
Trump has arguably changed the immigration system more than any U.S. president, thrilling supporters with an “America first” message and infuriating critics who call his signature domestic issue insular, xenophobic and even racist.
Before November's election, The Associated Press is examining some of Trump’s biggest immigration policy changes, from halting asylum to stepping back from America’s humanitarian role.
The pain from a dismantling of the 40-year-old refugee program reverberates worldwide, coming as a record 80 million people have been displaced by war and famine.
They include an Iraqi woman who can't get to America even though her father helped the U.S. military and a woman in Uganda who hasn't been able to join her husband near Seattle despite a court settlement requiring cases like hers to be expedited.
“My kids here cry every night, my wife cries in Uganda every night,” said Congolese refugee Sophonie Bizimana, a permanent U.S. resident who doesn't know why his wife isn't with their family. “I need her, the kids need her.”
Trump has lowered the cap for refugee admissions each year of his presidency, dropping them to a record low of 15,000 for 2021.
The State Department defended the cuts as protecting American jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said the administration has sought to have refugees settle closer to their home countries and work on solving the crises that caused them to flee.
“You cannot solve this problem through American domestic resettlement. The solution has to be one of foreign policy,” Miller told the AP.
The administration also narrowed eligibility this year, restricting which refugees are selected for resettlement to certain categories, including people persecuted because of religion and Iraqis whose assistance to the U.S. put them in danger.
Democratic lawmakers denounced the lower cap and said the categories are shutting out many of the most needy. Democrat Joe Biden promises to raise the annual refugee cap to 125,000 if he wins Nov. 3.
As many as 1,000 refugees who were ready to travel now may not be eligible because they don't fit into one of the categories, said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a refugee resettlement group. For example, many Syrians may no longer qualify because no category is for those fleeing war, he said.
Even those who qualify are seeing their cases stalled because already-extensive vetting measures have become extreme. For instance, refugees now must provide addresses dating back 10 years, a near impossible task for people living in exile, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project.
The Trump administration also has rolled back other humanitarian protections, like Temporary Protected Status for 400,000 immigrants fleeing natural disasters or violence.
Those from countries like Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Nepal and Syria now face deportation under a plan to end the program in January. Among them is Lili Montalvan, who arrived from El Salvador alone at 16 a quarter-century ago.
Living in Miami, she has a 6-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son who are American citizens. She can't fathom raising her youngest in El Salvador. Their father was deported back to Peru last year.
“We have children, we have homes, we are part of this country,” said Montalvan, who cleans houses and sells baked goods.
The administration’s efforts to drastically reduce both illegal and legal immigration has triggered a slew of lawsuits.
Bizimana, the Congolese refugee, was a plaintiff in one settled Feb. 10 by a federal court in Seattle, which required the government to expedite the cases of some 300 families. But more than eight months after the legal victory, he's still waiting for his wife to join him, and no one can tell him why.
Since arriving in 2014, Bizimana has hit hurdles every step of the way in his quest to reunite his family.
After one son arrived in 2016, the door slammed shut for everyone else in October 2017, when the Trump administration suspended refugee admissions for four months and then required more vetting of spouses and children on the verge of joining their families in the U.S.
After a federal judge limited those restrictions in December 2017, seven of his children were admitted, but not their mother. The International Rescue Committee, the resettlement agency that helped Bizimana, said the reasons for the delay are unclear.
He's not the only one without answers.
Across the globe, an Iraqi woman whose father helped the U.S. military does not know why her case stalled. She spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear her family could still be in danger.
Her father worked closely with the U.S. Army as an Iraqi government official. Because of the relationship, American military doctors agreed to treat her two rare disorders, including one causing her immune system to attack her organs.
But her frequent visits to U.S. bases led to death threats from militias in her Baghdad neighborhood, and she and her family fled to Jordan in 2016.
The 51-year-old mother has waited ever since to get to the United States, where she has a brother in Syracuse, New York. Her family has been interviewed by U.S. officials and finished their background checks.
The New York-based International Refugee Assistance Project was helping her but closed the case in 2019 because there was nothing more it could do, caseworker Ra’ed Almasri said.
“I’ve been working for three years with these people, and they still have not gotten a decision, and yet this is a case with someone who has medical issues, her family helped the U.S. military and has been through so much,” he said. “I don’t see why it hasn’t moved forward.”
The woman still texts Almasri every few weeks asking for news.
Her family first lived off savings, then help from her parents until that dried up when her father died. She sold some of her gold jewelry to pay rent on their modest apartment.
So much time has passed that her identification document from the U.N. High Commission on Refugees has expired, which means she can no longer prove a legal right to be in Jordan. She fears deportation to Iraq.
“This is our fifth year in Jordan, we are running out of money, we hope to receive the good news very soon,” the woman said.
Life has grown tougher for the more than 750,000 refugees in Jordan amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many cannot work or even leave their neighborhoods in Amman, where official checkpoints sealed off areas to slow the spread.
Almasri, the caseworker, said the desperation has become so acute some have attempted suicide.
“People feel stuck," Almasri said. “They already are in a tough situation, and now they only see things getting worse."
———
Snow reported from Phoenix, and Watson from San Diego. Associated Press reporters Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
