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Federal orders cause chaos and concern for refugee services in the Cape Ferra region – WHQR

Federal orders cause chaos and concern for refugee services in the Cape Ferra region – WHQR

Rachel Keith: Thank you very much for being here – so, briefly tell us what your organization is doing.

Wes Magruder: CWS Wilmington is a refugee resettlement agency, which means that we are one of the many local sites across the country who move refugees who come to the country through the US Housing Program, providing them with basic, basic services for their first 90 days and He records them in an employment program, which helps them become self-sufficient in the community as soon as possible.

Rk: We talked beforeAnd you said that the refugees who come to the United States are some of the most checked people in the country.

Wm: They have passed mainly through a system and program managed by the United Nations organization. So these are refugees who went to the UN camp. They are officially registered as refugees and are then allowed to enter a resettlement program. The United States is one of those partners, one of the many countries that accept refugee migrations. And so the United States enters and carries out not only security checks but also medical examinations.

There are a series of interviews and then it is determined that a family has the right to be displaced here to the United States and we are one of those offices where this family can find themselves. But this is a long process; It takes 18 months to two years, just to finally get to the United States, and this does not count the number of years you would have already spent in a refugee camp waiting. However, re -seduction is just an option for refugees who are definitely that there is no safe path to return home.

Rk: And they escape from political violence or religious persecution or, say, an air -conditioning crisis?

Wm: Yes, mostly political. The definition of UN refugees involves facing fear of pursuit of a race, religion or social group.

Rk: And the last few days have been quite chaotic for your organization because of the latest federal decisions. Can you go through what your last few days have been?

Wm: Yes. Well, it started on the first day of the new presidential administration, as one of the executives was specifically aimed at the US refugee reception program. It stopped this program indefinitely, which means that there were no more arriving refugees as of January 27. However, minutes after the order has been issued, the flights have already been canceled around the world for refugees who have already been released for acceptance and arrival.

So it was the first shoe to fall, so to speak. Then, at the end of the week, there was a note that stopped all foreign help and we were informed that we could no longer use the funds we had previously received to help facilitate the relocation of refugees.

Now this is an essential question for us because we have refugees who have arrived recently, and they are still within the 90-day service period that we must provide services for them. So, immediately, we asked, “Well, does that mean that we have to stop serving those who have recently arrived?” I think there is still a lot of confusion about it; Different resettlement agencies have answered this question in other ways. Some said we read this to say that we cannot serve even the active customers we already have.

I can say and I am glad to say that CWS has nationally decided that it also interprets the note to mean that we still have to continue to serve the clients we have this obligation. So in our office we still serve the customers who have arrived and are within the first 90 days.

The most was when eight Latin America people arrived at Wilmington Airport on Friday, January 24, the day he went down. So we still serve them. We enroll their children at school. We get all the documents they need. We help them in every way. But to be honest, at any minute I guess the State Department can go down and say, “No, don’t spend more money.”

Rk: And you said that the federal government is likely to be later, if it decides to restore it, you may not get a recovery if they decide to go on this route?

Wm: Yes, I want to say, I think there is a little risk that our organization has taken, and we have spent the money, but first of all, the money that is obliged under contract to spend on customers, as well as for our staff, who who who who who who who They perform these services. So yes, there is a risk that the Federal Government will not restore us. I would certainly not hope to reach this because our work with the federal government is under contract.

But then there was an order that descended that the whole federal funding should be frozen, which again threw us into chaos, because it affected some of the other means and grants we work under. And we’re just looking for clarity because I don’t think anyone knows what it means.

We found the White House canceled this order shortly before talking to you. But even again, there is conflict information about it, so I don’t know. I can tell you that all of us, all my staff, worry that they will lose their jobs in the end. And you can see that some other resettlement agencies across the country are already starting to fire the staff.

Rk: Your staff had to deal with some challenging scenarios for some families. They find: “Hey, I got here on time, but my siblings and parents cannot come. My children can’t come.

Wm: Yes, at that moment, yes. Months ago, we had a young man from North Africa and he was waiting for his brother and his mother to join him. They are separate cases of refugees, so they have received different travel arrangements. But the mother and brother had to travel in February and something happened. He pushed himself back, but at that moment their entire journey was deleted from the books. Not only is this tragic, but also because it means another delay, it potentially means that the mother and brother will not be able to come at all when you are ready to travel. You travel with a medical examination that has an expiration date. You have a security check that has expiration date. So, if stopping the refugee program lasts for a very long time, they could exceed the expiration date and they will have to do it again, move to the back of the line. It is a terrible situation to come in, to approach so close, and then find it.

Rk: And you said that some of your employees, I would like to say that if you get an additional breakdown they can’t take people to register their children to school or take them to a doctor’s meetings or to enroll them in different Programs. All this may need to stop.

Wm: We behave as if we could, but if in the coming days we would realize that we cannot, it would expose many of our families at risk. They have health screenings. They have a doctor’s appointments. They have children who need to be enrolled in school. They have bank accounts. They must open the state identification numbers they must have created. So our employees provide many of these services. In the last few days, I have started calling and working with our volunteers and partners in the community to prepare to request the help of the community if we cannot do it ourselves.

Rk: What is next for you all? What do you hope that the federal government will move on?

Wm: We work as hard as we can to all our active clients to ensure that they have the services or know what they need to get, which we would have provided anyway. We just accelerated the process now, trying to do it as quickly as possible. We look at the question who is most vulnerable so that we have backup plans. We also think how we could return our services.

I fully predict that we will not have new refugee arrivals soon. I know that the executive order says they will inspect it every 90 days, but I suspect it may not have been restarted very soon. So, we decided that we would ask the question: “Well, how can we serve the people we have brought in the last two years? How can we best serve them?

Ever since we opened our doors in the last two years, we have moved 360 refugees to the Wilmington Cape Fer region. About 35% of the 100 people we move annually are under 18 years of age. And so we will ask ourselves, “How can we continue to serve those people who have been here a little longer?”

So they have new challenges that they did not face when they first arrived. These challenges can help them move in employment, opportunities, to receive certification or some things like career progress.

Also, we are always looking for ways to help them help them learn better English. We find that Wilmington is a very welcoming community and they want to help us, support and support us those families who have arrived. So I am confident that we will remain open; I just see that we may have to do some slightly different things in a little different ways.

In fact, we also serve a number of other types of refugees, including Ukrainians who came to the United States in a slightly different way. They have gone through a private sponsorship program. They come as humanitarian conditional release.

And there was another enforcement order that was issued on the first day, which also puts their future in danger. The president claims to be authority to cancel and close the humanitarian release system, which would mean as difficult as it is to believe that Ukrainians can lose their status in the country.

It also applies to Afghans and other groups that came here during the Biden administration legally under the humanitarian release system or through temporary protective status (TPS). Both programs are endangered. This can be canceled at any moment that these people would do immediately without documents and therefore they would be obliged to deport.

Some people ask me if refugees are a threat to be deported. I can honestly say no because the refugees who came here and have a refugee status have all the documentation they need, so I don’t feel that they should be in any danger. This does not mean that they are not afraid because they contact us and tell us that they are afraid.

Some of the others who fall into the category of TP or humanitarian conditional release; When they ask about their risk, we tell them to make sure they always carry their documents with them at any time.

I only hear second hand messages about racial profiling. Let’s say you are from Venezuela and came as a refugee, which is completely legal here. You have all the documents, but will you stop again and again and request your documents and feel fear. So, it even affects those here with documents and documentation.

You can find more information about CWS Wilmington, including how to get involved or voluntarily, hereS

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