BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A coalition of refugee support agencies in Buffalo has announced a crisis response fund after the Trump Administration put a halt to the United States refugee resettlement program.
“On January 24th, we received a stop work order that told us we would no longer be funded to provide critical services to the 731 refugees that arrived in the past 90 days here in western New York," said Molly Carr, the CEO of Jewish Family Services of Western New York.
“We were blindsided by funding cuts to support refugees who the US government brought here in the last 90 days and promised to provide critical services," she said.
To fill the funding gap left by the cuts, the Refugee Partnership announced Friday the Crisis Response Fund. That partnership is made up of Catholic Charities of Buffalo, the International Institute of Buffalo, Jericho Road Community Health Center, Journey's End Refugee Services and Jewish Family Services.
Both Journey's End and Jewish Family Services have announced they've already had to lay off some staff and the International Institute said they're anticipating having to make cuts as well.
The goal of the fund is to raise $1.5 million in 30 days.
“This is going to make sure that the families receive all of the services that they deserve to have like every other refugee that's come through the pipeline," said Pamela Bos Kefi, CEO of Journey's End. "It will also cover all of the administrative expenses that we have incurred which will help maintain our stability moving forward.”
Dottie Gallagher, president and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership emphasized the role refugees and immigrants have played in growing Buffalo.
“Investing in refugee resettlement is investing in our economy," Gallagher said at the news conference. "It is how we are going to grow. So I, I want to lean in on this because there's a lot of negative rhetoric quite frankly racist rhetoric around around a lot of things that are happening. All of the people we're talking about have legal status to be in the United States and want to be here and we want them here.”
For more information about the Refugee Partnership Crisis Response Fund go to: https://www.refugeepartnership.org/
