NEW MILFORD, Conn. >> Rogers Lopez knows just how lucky his family is as they settle into their furnished two-bedroom apartment in suburban Connecticut, just before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Lopez, his wife Karina Cañizarez and their 5-year-old son Jesus are refugees from Venezuela and Colombia who were embraced by a team of supportive volunteers when they arrived in December. Similar encounters happened nationwide as resettlement groups scrambled in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration to find homes for refugees before Trump sharply limits, if not closes, this path to safety and citizenship.

“Always, the refugee process is very difficult,” said Lopez, 29, who said “political problems” forced him from Venezuela. “But it will be more difficult in the future.”

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has brought in more than 3 million people since Congress created it in 1980 for refugees fearing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion.

Trump, who put tight limits on refugees in his first term, has vowed to “suspend refugee resettlement” as part of a broader effort to “immediately end the migrant invasion of America.”

Presidents set targets and Biden ramped them up, citing “the generosity that has always been at the core of the American spirit,” and the billions of dollars refugees have contributed to the U.S. economy.

Nearly 30,000 refugees arrived during the final three months of 2024, coming close to meeting Biden’s annual cap of 125,000. Trump admitted about 11,000 during the final year of his first term, the fewest since the U.S. began resettlements.

“People are desperate to do the work right now because we have a pretty good idea that all immigration is going to cease, at least for a while, when he takes office,” said Michele Shackelford, president of the New Milford Refugee Resettlement group that’s helping Lopez and his family.

Often conflated with asylum-seekers who come directly to the U.S.-Mexico border, these refugees face a much more rigorous process. If the U.N. refugee agency determines they qualify, they are interviewed by U.S. immigration officials and must pass criminal background checks and medical screening. It can take years.

Aware that Trump can close the doors almost immediately, Maria Mostajo, a former Manhattan prosecutor, and Carolyn Setlow, a retired business executive, have been working furiously to settle families in Connecticut through a project they founded in their small town of Washington.

“If Trump comes in and either puts the kibosh on these entries or, as he’s done in the past, reduces the number of people that can enter per year, then that basically means all these people that are in the pipeline, fewer and fewer of them are actually going to get in,” Mostajo said.

During the fall of the U.S.-supported government in Afghanistan, Mostajo and Setlow held a community meeting, appealing for volunteers and funds to help settle one Afghan family of six. Through various fundraising efforts, including a GoFundMe campaign and a party donated by a local distillery, they raised $80,000, as well as donations of furniture, and clothing, free legal help, English tutoring and other assistance.