Trump puts U.S. plans for refugees into question
RUTLAND, VT.— Arabic language classes are drawing 25 to 30 people a week in preparation for the new arrivals in town. High school students are helping collect furniture and housewares for them, and employers have inquired about giving them jobs.
For the past several months, Rutland has been getting ready to receive 100 mostly Syrian refugees beginning early next year. But with Donald Trump taking office in late January, Rutland’s plans and those of other U.S. cities that have agreed to take in people fleeing the civil war have been thrown into question, given the incoming president’s hostility to ward Muslim immigrants.
“I am not even going to hazard a guess” about the fate of the program, said Mayor Christopher Louras, who invited the newcomers in the hope they can help revitalize this shrinking, post-industrial, heroinplagued city of 15,800 in central Vermont.
In the fiscal year that just ended, the Obama administration screened and admitted nearly 12,600 Syrian refugees, who were resettled in cities and towns across the U.S. Thousands more are scheduled to arrive in the coming year.
During the campaign, Trump proposed a ban on Muslims entering the country and called for a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees for fear of terrorists slipping through. He also vowed “extreme vetting ” of would-be immigrants from countries plagued by extremism.
Presidents set the quotas for refugees allowed into the country. Once Trump takes office Jan. 20, he could cut off the flow or reduce the number the U.S. will accept. The presidentelect’s transition team had not commented this month on his plans.
Stacie Blake, a spokesperson for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said her organization hopes Rutland will start seeing the refugees arrive by mid-January. Once admitted to the U.S., refugees cannot be expelled unless they have committed a serious crime or are found to have lied to gain entry.
Rutland’s plan has been welcomed by some and condemned by others, who warn that the refugees could not only pose a security threat, but also take away housing, jobs and social services from locals.
Among the many other U.S. communities preparing to accept Syrians and other refugees in 2017 is Bowling Green, Ky., a longtime refugee resettlement community that took in about 400 mostly African immigrants this year. It expects 40 Syrians in September.
Albert Mbanfu, executive director of the International Center of Kentucky, a refugee resettlement agency in Bowling Green, said he isn’t so sure Trump will follow through on his threats.
“Campaign rhetoric is completely different from governing, and there are so many things that we might say because we are in the heat of a campaign, and when we get into the practicality of things, we do it differently,” Mbanfu said. He added: “I believe we will be fine.”
In Rutland, the mayor sees accepting refugees not just as a humanitarian gesture but also as a way to boost the population and inject energy into the city, which had a booming marble-quarrying industry that was built on immigrant labour from Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The local hospital, restaurants, ski resorts, contractors and other employers have expressed interest in hiring refugees, Louras said.