Aid Cuts Increase Migration and Human Suffering, Warns JRS/USA President

Published via Knox News

Tennesseans have a long history of serving others and building communities. In the late 1800s, the De La Salle Christian Brothers established a school in the western part of the state. By educating students, they worked to “change the face of society by reducing poverty through education,” from elementary school through college.

When a yellow fever outbreak forced the school to close in the 1870s, the brothers cared for the sick at Camp Father Matthew. The school’s president, Brother Maurelian, asked President Rutherford B. Hayes to help with the dire situation and assist with federal aid to investigate the cause and prevention of the disease.

Brother Maurelian and the other religious at Christian Brothers College represent the compassion of Tennesseans, still present in communities today.

Students and researchers at Vanderbilt University have dedicated much of their practice to understanding infectious diseases and finding cures that help afflicted communities across the globe. In Kenya, they operate the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, whose mission is to “provide leadership in interdisciplinary research, education, health systems strengthening, and advocacy for health and development in resource-limited settings around the world.”

Through its work, Vanderbilt University has prevented the transmission of infections and saved the lives of many thousands, including those in Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, and Mozambique living with infectious diseases.

Aid cuts devastating and likely to lead to more migration

Many refugees are still forced to move from their homes or countries of first asylum due to medical crises like the HIV/AIDS epidemic, religious persecution, terrorism, and human trafficking. After DOGE cut nearly all funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), many of these countries were burdened with additional hardship, resulting in death and suffering for those left behind. Due to the lack of funding, integral programs and initiatives led by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were forced to stop operating.

To date, approximately 83% of foreign assistance has been abruptly halted, with medical clinics closed, food distribution ended, and classrooms shuttered. The humanitarian impact of these dramatic cuts is devastating, affecting some of the poorest nations in the world and likely leading to increases in irregular migration.

Similar to the Christian brothers, at Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), we are guided by our Catholic faith to serve those who need our help. We provide education and other services to those in need in 57 countries around the world, helping refugees and other migrants thrive and determine their own futures.

Some JRS programs, previously funded by PRM, offered secondary education to tens of thousands of refugee students, distributed life-saving medications, provided medical transport, and enlisted nurses to care for people who had suffered medical crises and would otherwise lack access to care.

JRS funding for programs in Ethiopia, South Africa, and Chad was terminated, in addition to funds for programs in Asia and the Middle East.

Working alongside us in some places are organizations funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Thousands of mothers around the world have been infected with HIV, and without medication, will pass it on to their children during birth. Amid the decimation of foreign assistance funding, PEPFAR – one of the most successful aid programs in American history – was cut, blocking hundreds of thousands from receiving life-saving medical care.

Sen. Bill Hagerty has the power to help reinstate foreign aid

As Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) knows, tens of thousands of infected individuals face death or other harsh outcomes if they can’t get medication, clean water, or shelter. Sen. Hagerty, with his seats on both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Committee on Appropriations, has the power to help lead the reinstatement of effective foreign aid funding. As chair of the subcommittee on State Department and USAID management, Sen. Hagerty is the key to their successful reorganization and to future allocation of foreign assistance. We need his leadership on 2025 Congressional funding. It remains blocked by members of the administration who do not seem aligned with President Donald Trump’s longstanding positions in support of life-saving foreign assistance.

Tennesseans, like most Americans, have long welcomed and supported disadvantaged communities. It’s time for Sen. Hagerty, and all of us, to speak up and help those who need a hand up, not a hand out. This is a moral issue that also impacts America’s interest in peace and security.

Just as Brother Maurelian asked President Hayes to ease a crisis with federal aid, we ask President Trump and Sen. Hagerty to reconsider cuts to foreign aid and mitigate the devastating impact they have on millions of people around the world.