in December 2016.

The fear has not subsided since the election. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would slash federal funds for sanctuary cities that do not comply with ICE. Berkeley receives around $11.5 million in federal funding, which goes to social services, including housing programs, supportive care, and emergency shelter and health services.

In January, the 2×2 Committee, consisting of City Council and School Board members, came up with the idea to create a joint working group to “address this new potential for a threat,” said Brandi Campbell, the mayor’s chief of staff. The new task force is made up of city staff, representatives from BUSD, UC Berkeley and Berkeley City College, local immigrant rights advocates, religious leaders and others.

The task force is workingThere were signs this was coming. During his campaign, Trump called for a total ban on Muslim immigration to the United States, citing terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere as the reason for why the U.S. should be cautious about whom it admits. In policy terms, this has translated into not only a dramatic decline in the overall number of refugees, including Muslims, accepted by the U.S., but also into a sharp reduction in the number of vulnerable Christians resettled in the country.

Indeed, the U.S. set a record-low ceiling of 45,000 refugees for fiscal year 2018, which ended September 30. It resettled less than half that number: 22,491. Of this, 15,748 were Christians (about 70 percent), according to an analysis by Matthew Soerens, the U.S. director of church