Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne-South Bend says a Trump Administration executive order has forced them to layoff 17 people who had been working to help refugees resettle in the area.
The nonprofit has worked as a subgrantee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, but the new administration has canceled that group’s contract with the State Department.
They’ve been providing core services to refugees who are victims of war and violence. Refugees are granted legal protection and a pathway to permanent residency through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Congress created the program in 1980. Over the past few years Catholic Charities here has helped more than 1,000 refugees from about a dozen war-torn countries. A major thing they do is help the refugees find jobs so they can get them off of food stamps and Medicaid that they automatically receive.
"The success rate of refugees finding work and becoming economically self-sufficient is very high," says Dan Florin, CEO of Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne-South Bend. "So I think this is a program that has proven itself to be net positive for society."
Florin says laying off people who are passionate about this work is only part of his sadness.
"There were families in route to America to reunite with other family members who have successfully come here through the resettlement program, and when the executive order hit, they were turned back to the refugee camps. So their reunification with their family members is now put on hold for who knows how long, so heartbroken is how we're all feeling."
