Refugee Resettlement Organization Overwhelmed After Trump's Ban
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- President Donald Trump's immigration ban prevents citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days. It also bans all refugees from entering for 120 days.
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has been bombarded with phone calls over the last several days from concerned families, wondering how they will reunite with family members overseas.
"It's been a very unsettling time," said Maureen Warren, vice president of LSS. "We are getting contacted from cousins and moms and relatives that are expecting their family members."
For those families, their travel plans are on hold.
Resettlement organizations assisted more than 2,600 refugees in Minnesota last year. Warren says the immigration ban not only puts the future of many of the families they work with into question, but potentially the jobs of employees in America who work in refugee resettlement.
"We're a large organization. We're kind of blessed that way," she said. "We're able to weather some of this in terms of having our employees remain with us. And we can look for reassignments within LSS for some of our good, long-serving employees."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar co-sponsored a bill to overturn the travel ban, but it was blocked by Senate Republicans. She spoke on "CBS This Morning."
"This was implemented in a way that just caused chaos, and governing is different than campaigning," Klobuchar said. "In campaigning, you can make pronouncements and send out tweets -- but this is actual governing."
Warren says Minnesota ranks 13th among all states for the number of refugees that resettle in America.
Gov. Mark Dayton and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith issued a strongly-worded joint statement on the travel ban, calling it "ill-conceived," "antithetical to our American values," and a decision that defies "our core beliefs as Americans, and go against the founding principles of our nation."
