How do refugees from the Middle East adapt to and adopt US religiosity? The supposed difficulty of refugees in adapting to US political norms has been a hallmark of anti-refugee sentiment in the United States. President Trump has proposed religious preferences in refugee admissions, while opinion pieces decry ‘Sharia Law’ and the incompatibility of Islam and US political culture. Paradoxically, the US refugee resettlement program relies heavily on the services of faith communities in supporting and integrating refugee families. As the United States increasingly moves to resettle refugees in smaller cities, this reliance on faith communities is likely to increase. Despite this, recent research into smaller refugee-accepting towns suggests most Americans still expect state and federal government to take a leading role in the resettlement process (Bose et. al., 2018). This faith and state nexus means that the first face of "America" many newly settled refugees see is a religious one. Using case studies of two refugee resettlement programs in Reno, Nevada and Boise, Idaho this paper explores the lived experiences of new refugees and their faith-community mentors. We hypothesize that the experiences and perceptions of religious pluralism in America are mediated by interactions with religious communities. This in turn influences how refugees understand their ability to participate in American life as religious subjects. We further hypothesize that faith communities will rely on less politically sensitive justifications (including 'neighborliness' and 'hospitality') to support refugee resettlement and advocate continued support to their internal stakeholders (Chang 2017). Each of these interactions, on the side of refugees and US faith communities, holds important lessons for resettlement agencies and international organizations.