The Episcopal Church’s migration service is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white South Africans granted refugee status, citing the church’s longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.”
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced the step Monday, one day after 49 South Africans departed their homeland, bound for new homes in the United States. Episcopal Migration Ministries instead will halt its decades-long partnership with the government, Rowe said.
President Donald Trump opened a fast-tracked refugee status to white South Africans, accusing their government of discrimination, even as his administration abruptly shut down the overall U.S. refugee program. The South Africans jumped ahead of thousands of would-be refugees overseas who had been undergoing years of vetting and processing.
Episcopal Migration Ministries has long resettled refugees under federal grants. Rowe said that about two weeks ago, the government contacted it and said it expected the ministry to resettle some of the South Africans under terms of its grant.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe said. “Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.”
Another faith-based group, Church World Service, said it is open to helping resettle the Afrikaners.
South Africa’s government has vehemently denied allegations of discriminatory treatment of its white minority residents.
“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said. “I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country.”
He also said many refugees, including Christians, are victims of religious persecution and are now denied entry.
He said the church would find other ways to serve immigrants, such as those already in this country and those stranded overseas.
The move marks the end of a ministry-government partnership that, for nearly four decades, has served nearly 110,000 refugees from countries ranging from Ukraine, Myanmar and Congo, Rowe said.
It’s not the first high-profile friction between the Episcopal Church and the government. Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington drew Trump’s anger in January at an inaugural prayer service in which she urged “mercy” on those fearing his actions, including migrants and LGBTQ+ children.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa includes churches in South Africa and neighboring countries. It was a potent force in the campaign against apartheid in the 1980s and 1990s, an effort for which the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Another faith-based refugee agency, Church World Service, says it is open to serving the South African arrivals.
“We are concerned that the U.S. Government has chosen to fast-track the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are in desperate need of resettlement,” Rick Santos, CWS president and CEO, said in a statement.
He added that the action proves the government knows how to screen and process refugees quickly.
“Despite the Administration’s actions, CWS remains committed to serving all eligible refugee populations seeking safety in the United States, including Afrikaners who are eligible for services,” he said. “Our faith compels us to serve each person in our care with dignity and compassion.”
The Episcopal ministry and CWS are among 10 national groups, most of them faith-based, that have partnered with the government for refugee resettlement.
Associated Press writer Tiffany Stanley contributed.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
CHICAGO (AP) — Recruiting women into construction has been a painstaking but broadly popular effort, with growing bipartisan and industry support amid persistent labor shortages. But President Donald Trump’s aim to stamp out diversity and inclusion programs threaten to cripple community-based organizations that have been critical to that goal.
The Trump administration has moved swiftly to cut off federal funding to dozens of community groups that implement programs on the ground, including apprenticeship readiness programs designed for women, anti-harassment training, and child care and transportation support for workers who need them.
The overhaul stems from a pair of anti-DEI executive orders, which direct federal agencies to cancel all “equity-related” grants, and require government contractors and recipients of federal funds to certify, under threat of severe financial penalties, that they do not operate DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination laws.
But for nonprofits whose very mission involves providing services to historically marginalized communities, the executive orders pose an existential threat, driving several lawsuits alleging Trump’s orders are impossible to comply with because they are so vague about what constitutes “illegal” DEI.
Chyanne Henderson practices putting together a window during an Ironworkers Local 63 pre-apprenticeship class Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Alejandra Gonzalez practices virtual welding during an Ironworkers Local 63 pre-apprenticeship class Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Instructor Kitty Thompson works with students during an Ironworkers Local 63 pre-apprenticeship class Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Alejandra Gonzalez practices virtual welding during an Ironworkers Local 63 pre-apprenticeship class Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
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Chyanne Henderson practices putting together a window during an Ironworkers Local 63 pre-apprenticeship class Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Broadview, Ill. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Stakeholders in the construction industry are closely following a lawsuit filed by Chicago Women in Trades, an organization founded in 1981 to help women enter the skilled trades. Other similar groups said they were considering litigation after the Department of Labor yanked their grants last week.
About 40% of Chicago Women in Trades’ stems from federal funding, according to court filings.
As the lawsuits play out, Chicago Women in Trades Executive Director Jayne Vellinga said hiring and future programming has stalled because the ultimate fate of the organization’s funding is unclear. Current programs are continuing under a cloud of uncertainty.
The sound of whirring drills filled the Ironworkers Local 63 training center just outside Chicago during one exploratory training program that is reliant on state and federal funds. About two dozen women donned hard hats, work gloves and safety glasses to practice assembling windows as an instructor looked on. Two groups raced each other to see how quickly they could perfect each assembly. Another practices caulking nearby.
During the 10-week program, participants spend a week exploring different trades with experienced carpenters, electricians and iron workers. About 70% of the participants successfully move on to apprenticeships.
Sam Barraza, 24, joined the program after struggling with an office job due to ADHD. During a rotation with the Bricklayers Union, Barraza was hired as an apprentice in tuck pointing, a masonry repair process used to restore older buildings.
But Barraza, who is nonbinary, said they would never have understood how to get a foothold in the industry without a program like Chicago Women in Trades.
“There are so many insider things that, if your uncle was in the trades, or your dad did it, whatever, you would know,” Barraza said. “It’s the first time I’ve been excited for a career instead of like, ‘I just have to work to live.’”
Government agencies, construction companies and labor unions have invested billions of dollars to expand apprenticeships and other programs to draw younger generations into the skilled trades, an effort that accelerated as the Biden administration ramped up investment in infrastructure and the semiconductor industry. Part that effort has been programming to make worksites more welcoming to women, racial minorities and LGBTQ people who have long faced bias and harassment in an industry that is majority white and overwhelmingly male.
Progress has been slow but steady. Women, for instance, comprise only 4% of skilled trade workers, but that’s a nearly 30% increase since 2018 and a record high, according to U.S. labor statistics that have been celebrated by both women’s advocacy groups and industry associations. Advocates say recruiting more women and minorities to well-paid skilled jobs helps alleviate pay gaps while addressing labor shortages.
Far from being a target during the first Trump administration, Chicago Women in Trades received two grants in 2019 and 2020 under the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations program, known as WANTO, which dates back to a 1992 Congressional act signed by President George H.W. Bush.
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The first Trump administration increased funding for WANTO, providing more than $8.5 million in grants to 17 community organizations that served more than 3,500 women. Funding for WANTO surged under the Biden administration, which awarded nearly $18 million in grants to more than 20 organizations.
But the future of WANTO is in limbo. Last week, the Labor Department sent termination notices to many of the grants recipients, saying their focus on gender equity and diversity no longer aligns with the administration’s priorities, several of the organizations told The Associated Press.
Rhoni Basden, executive director of Vermont Works for Women, said the loss of its $400,000 WANTO grant imperils a new apprenticeship readiness program aimed at building a pipeline of workers in semiconductor manufacturing in the state. The program, using curriculum developed with the industry group Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center, had been scheduled to launch in the spring.
Chicago Women in Trades’ WANTO grant is protected for now under a preliminary injunction issued last month by Judge Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, who ruled that canceling the grant would violate the separation of powers. However, Kennelly declined to protect the organization’s four other federal grants, or to extend his protective order to other WANTO grantees.
The Labor Department did not reply to multiple emails seeking clarity about its intentions for WANTO or other similar federal initiatives.
In his 2026 fiscal year budget request, Trump pledged to keep investing in the expansion of apprenticeship opportunities while eliminate funding to “progressive non-profits” that focus on DEI. Instead, the administration proposed sending funding to states and localities to decide how to spend them. The Trump administration argues that many DEI policies pressure employers to hire based on race or gender, or unfairly shut out some workers from training and funding opportunities.
Another WANTO grantee, Maryland Center for Construction Education & Education, said the impact of losing its federal funding will force the suspension of programs to help women enter construction and other industries that are “facing a severe labor shortage — tens of thousands of skilled workers are needed across Maryland in the next few years alone.”
“These are not abstract losses. These are missed paychecks, shuttered training programs, and stalled progress for communities that need it most,” the group said in statement, adding that it was exploring “legal and legislative avenues to fight back.”
Construction firms have supported outreach programs to women out of sheer need: The industry is seeking more than 400,000 new workers this year to meet anticipated demand, according to trade group Associated Builders and Contractors.
“We need all of the talent and resources that we can get,” said Vanessa Jester, community and citizenship director for Turner Construction in Columbus, Ohio, where construction worker shortages are especially acute.
The company has partnered with Chicago Women in Trades and other community groups to expose women and girls to the construction industry.
“If these young girls can’t see it, feel it, touch it and see that there’s an opportunity, we’re not going to be able to grow,” Jester added.
Turner Construction is one of 800 firms that have joined the “Culture of Care” program launched in 2019 by the Associated General Contractors of America to address harassment, hazing and bullying that has long plagued in the industry.
The association, which has 27,000 member firms, says on its website that Trump’s executive orders on DEI have prompted a review of its initiative and resources “to ensure continued compliance with the law.”
Brian Turmail, the association’s vice president of Public Affairs & Workforce, said that while the language of some guidance might be changed, the organization plans to double down on “Culture of Care,” saying it’s about preventing discrimination that drives away many women and racial minorities from the field.
“There isn’t any other way for the industry to be viable,” he said.
This story corrects the spelling of Sam Barraza’s last name.
The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Shares of many companies that source at least some of their goods from China are surging on Monday as U.S. and Chinese officials announced that they had reached a deal to roll back most of their recent tariffs and called a 90-day truce in their trade war to allow for more talks on resolving their trade disputes.
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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. agreed to drop its 145% tariff rate on Chinese goods by 115 percentage points to 30%, while China agreed to lower its rate on U.S. goods by the same amount to 10%.
There’s still big challenges remaining in the negotiations between China and the United States, but the mood nevertheless was ebullient across Wall Street on Monday, and gains were widespread.
Here’s a look at some of the sectors impacted by the U.S.-China tariff announcement.
Footwear and Athletic Gear
Many of these companies have some of their production in China and elsewhere in Asia. About 97% of the clothes and shoes purchased in the U.S. are imported, predominantly from Asia, the American Apparel & Footwear Association said last month, citing its most recent data.
Nike, up 6.7%
Foot Locker, up 10.1%
Dick’s Sporting Goods, up 11.4%
Under Armour, up 6.9%
Apparel Companies
Similar to footwear companies, many clothing companies make at least some of their items in China and other parts of Asia. In March companies like Abercrombie & Fitch began to caution about their full-year sales potential as American shoppers began to pull back on their spending.
Lululemon Athletica, up 7.7%
Gap, up 7.7%
Ralph Lauren, up 5.2%
Abercrombie & Fitch, up 5.8%
Retail
Retailers that sell a variety of goods are feeling some market relief because the announced trade deal means these companies won’t have to pass on high costs caused by tariffs to their own customers.
Before the agreement was announced, many consumers were fearful of the potential additional costs. Amazon even came out and said that it was not planning to display added tariff costs next to product prices on its site. And Target cautioned in March that there would be “meaningful pressure” on its profits to start the year because of tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China and other costs.
Best Buy, up 5.7%
Amazon, up 7.2%
Target, up 2.9%
Travel Companies
Shares of travel companies are climbing on hopes that lower tariffs will encourage more customers to fly and feel comfortable enough to spend on trips. Prior to the U.S.-China tariff announcement, major U.S. airlines were reducing their flight schedules and revising or withdrawing their profit outlooks for the year due to less domestic travel demand as sentiment about the national and global economies soured.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego is wading into one of Washington’s most contentious and intractable political problems as he puts forward a plan Monday aimed at reforming the country’s immigration system and beefing up border security.
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The plan by Gallego, who beat Republican Kari Lake in last fall’s tight Senate race, calls for hiring more Border Patrol agents; using technology to stop fentanyl smuggling; reforming the asylum system; adding more ways for people to come to the U.S.; and a pathway to citizenship for some immigrants.
Gallego’s plan comes three months into President Donald Trump’s administration as Trump seeks to deliver on campaign promises of carrying out mass deportations. His plan — or any other from Democrats — is unlikely to get much traction with Trump in the White House, but it illustrates that the debate about legislative solutions carries on.
Many members of Congress have tried and failed to change the immigration system. A small group of senators, led by Gallego’s predecessor, Krysten Sinema, negotiated for months in 2023 and 2024 over a border bill that would have toughened asylum protocols for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border; hired more officers to evaluate asylum claims and Border Patrol agents; and given money to local governments seeing influxes of migrants.
The last time Congress even came close to a breakthrough on immigration reform was in 2013, when a bipartisan group of senators pushed forward legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally and expanding work visas while tightening border security and mandating that employers verify workers’ legal status. The Senate approved that proposal, but it was rejected by the House.
Gallego’s plan includes some elements that likely will find bipartisan support, such as his calls to beef up border security. But other parts — like efforts to legalize anyone already in the country illegally — will prove much more contentious.
“We don’t have to choose between border security and immigration reform. We can and should do both,” Gallego said in a news release Monday. He said “for decades, Congress has tried and failed to take action because politics got in the way. It’s time to push forward and enact a plan that works.”
Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, replaced Sinema, a Democrat-turned Independent from Arizona who often was on the forefront on immigration and border security legislation.
Here’s a look at the 21-page plan:
It offers more ways to get to the United States
Gallego argues that tougher immigration enforcement alone isn’t the answer and that it should be paired with more ways for people to come to the U.S. legally.
The plan calls for increasing the annual allotment of some visas and Green Cards and removing or significantly increasing “arbitrary per-country caps.” He also wants to create new visa categories, boost refugee resettlement and expedite the naturalization process for immigrants who serve in the military.
He also calls for gradually implementing E-Verify, which makes it easy to check if potential employees can legally work in the U.S. E-Verify has often faced resistance over concerns it would lead to widespread labor shortages.
There’s no exact number of how many people this would encompass, although some estimates put the number as high as 3.4 million people.
Gallego’s plan also calls for a pathway to citizenship for spouses of U.S. citizens who are in the country illegally. President Joe Biden tried something similar last year in a program that would have covered an estimated 550,000 people, but it was swiftly held up by a judge.
It provides for investments in border security
Noting that migrant border arrivals started dropping back in June of last year, Gallego warns that a surge can come at any time so investments should be made now. The senator calls for better pay and addressing issues like workforce safety to help hire and retain Border Patrol agents; investments in technology and infrastructure to detect drugs or human smuggling; and focusing efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on removing people who pose a safety threat.
Gallego, who often speaks about the toll of migrant surges on Arizona’s border towns, also is proposing money to help affected communities.
It bolsters the asylum system
Instead of having asylum cases decided in backlogged immigration courts, Gallego wants to hire more asylum officers and give them the power to decide those cases. He also is proposing making the asylum standard higher and cutting back on asylum access during border surges.
It would look at root causes
Gallego argues the U.S. needs to figure out why migrants are leaving their home countries in the first place and address those problems.
