ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Over the last 40 years, Catholic Charities has helped to resettle 15,000 refugees in Rochester but from here on out, the agency will no longer be assisting new refugees making the trip to America.
President and CEO Lori VanAuken says “unprecedented changes in U.S. immigration policy” have had a major impact on the agency’s ability to serve New Americans.
60 people were expected to come to Rochester earlier this year, “refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and from the Congo,” explains Jim Morris, the VP of Family Prosperity Programs at Catholic Charities, “we were notified that the refugee population we were expecting was being halted, they were not going to be allowed into the country.”
The impacted folks had spent months if not years in refugee camps. They were vetted and cleared to come into the United States, many had even been given plane tickets for the journey. That’s when the federal government froze funding for resettlement programs. No one has been resettled locally since.
The agency that Catholic Charities partners with to handle the backgrounding and legal services for refugees has cancelled its contract with the federal government. Without that contract, there’s no pathway to get people here legally and no money to help them once they’re here.
VanAuken says she’s keeping the programs that support refugees who’ve already made it into the country going with private donations, “we were able to, despite our contract being cancelled, we were still able to provide services to 300 people to help welcome them into the country, get them settled with apartments, with housing, with food, hooking then up to medical care and just helping them transition into the United States.”
Beyond that, the future is bleak. “It’s heartbreaking to see that we’re not able to do this work anymore, we think it’s lifesaving work, we think it’s tremendous work that makes such an impact on refugees coming here,” Morris says. And an impact, on our broader community, “from an economic standpoint, they’re coming in, they’re filling jobs, going to work in a host of different industries, they’re rebuilding communities, especially on the city where that’s been the history of Rochester,” Morris added.
As far as the people who worked in the refugee resettlement program locally, News10NBC is told 2/3rds of them were able transition to other departments. Catholic Charities will continue its other work in the community which includes help with housing, care management and employment training.
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‘It’s heartbreaking’: Catholic Charities VP says they can no longer resettle refugees in Rochester WHEC.com.
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