Katie Kersh, senior attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) said the executive order to eliminate the refugee resettlement program, among other orders issued by Trump during the first week of his presidency, is not the end of changes to federal policy surrounding immigration.
“Certainly as it stands, that broad-sweeping cessation of refugee resettlement in the United States, that will impact so many people, including a lot of people in the Dayton area,” she said.
She and her organization are still determining what impact these rules will have on their clients, and they’re fielding numerous questions from immigrant communities.
“There’s a tremendous amount of fear,” said Kersh. “We’re not only getting calls from people who are undocumented but from folks who have Green Cards or who are even naturalized U.S. citizens, asking ‘Am I safe?’”
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has brought in people from other nations since Congress created it in 1980 for refugees fearing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group and more.
Refugee resettlement in the Dayton region is operated through Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley. Outside of this effort, ABLE provides some legal services to immigrants and refugees making a home in the region.
Clients come from all over: Ukraine, Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, Cameroon, Colombia, Venezuela, Nigeria and other nations in Africa, to name a few.
The disruption of the resettlement program, for many, could mean prolonged separation from their families, Kersh said.
“The refugee process is extremely slow. There are lots of people in this community who are still waiting on their family members to join them,” Kersh said.
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