The Trump administration suspended refugee resettlement last month, prompting organizations that support refugee immigrants to halt their programs too. We’ll look at some knock-on effects of that policy shift.

In Afghanistan, Shakila Hotak would not have been allowed to drive by the Taliban. But Hotak isn’t in Kabul anymore.

She now lives in Houston, where she resettled as a refugee two years ago. She has supported herself with a factory job that pays $11 an hour and used to spend roughly two hours commuting to her job each way. 

“I was taking two buses,” she said in Dari. “One bus, they dropped me to the pharmacy, and after that, I took another bus … to my place of work.” 

Now that she has a driver’s license and her own car, her commute is around 35 minutes. And she has the freedom and time to do other things, like form friendships and take herself to the doctor.

Learning how to drive and getting a license is a must for refugees and immigrants, many of whom come from countries where public transportation is more widely available. That’s why YMCA International Services in Houston has helped these drivers learn the rules of the road — for free and in their native language. 

During a class in late January, Innocent Tuyiringire led orientation for the driver’s ed program explaining the process of obtaining a driver’s license. It’s part of a program that launched in 2021, and it’s helped around 550 people, according to YMCA.

Joanne Pantaleon, who supervised the program, said her clients were hired for new jobs and kept their jobs after getting their license through this program, which was especially popular with women.  

"Color Adjustment," a documentary by filmmaker Marlon Riggs, focuses on how images of Black people on primetime TV, from “Amos ‘n’ Andy” to “The Cosby Show,” were made to be comforting to white people, not dwell on justice and conflict. Black people showed up on TV only insofar that they reaffirmed the American Dream and middle class values.

The 1992 film is this month’s selection in our ongoing watchalong series “Econ Extra Credit.”

Karsonya Wise Whitehead, founding executive director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace & Social Justice at Loyola University Maryland said the medium still struggles with these issues more than three decades after Riggs' documentary first premiered. 

Shows may have more diverse casts now, she said, "but they don’t deal with the fact that race is a constant in our society."

"The problem that happens in the media is that when we see progress, what they call redemption, there’s always regression," Whitehead told "Marketplace Morning Report" host David Brancaccio.

If you liked Kimberly Adams’ pocket explainer, you’ll love our full webinar on the national debt.

Correction: Last week’s newsletter (sent on Feb. 14) misstated Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s party affiliation. Beshear is a Democrat.

Ellen Rolfes and Tony Wagner wrote and edited this newsletter. Elizabeth Trovall reported our top story on cuts to refugee assistance in Houston. David Brancaccio and Alex Schroeder produced the story about "Color Adjustment."