FEBRUARY 24, 2025
State Action Matters: It’s how we build the blueprint for a bipartisan GRACE Act.
Connecticut’s ability to welcome refugees is under attack. Under the Trump administration’s most recent pause of USRAP, Connecticut lost its ability to resettle—the impact of which is already being felt across the Constitution state.
Resettlement agencies are shrinking staff, family reunifications live in limbo, and communities are scrambling to support recently-arrived refugees.
As Maggie Mitchell Salem, the Executive Director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, shared in an interview with Connecticut Public:
“It’s overwhelming, every day, something else changes, and it doesn’t always offer more clarity to us. And our clients, the people we serve, are just deeply fearful. No one feels secure. They come to us for information, and we tell them what we know, but as of now, that’s not a lot.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. Connecticut can follow New York’s example and introduce legislation that would codify the state’s participation in the Refugee Program. Connecticut must affirm its’ support for resettled communities legislatively. The International Rescue Committee has published a guide on how to do this in Connecticut—and in your state.
Read the full article here.
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