Last fall Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota which (has a brand new shiny building) and runs the refugee program in the state said no Syrians were slated for North Dakota, but now oopsy, here is a seed family.
From Valley News Live:
North Dakota has not had a Syrian family in the community, at least not until a few days ago.
Last November, Jessica Thomasson CEO of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota said in a statement “LSSND has stated to these agencies, including the State Department, that it does not feel Syrian resettlement to North Dakota makes sense due to the lack of an established Syrian presence in our communities and due to its focus of resettling families wanting to reunite with family already living in North Dakota.”
Thomasson told me that LSSND resettled a Kurdish family just a few days ago who are from Syria and Iraq.
[….]
She stated LSS does not select who moves to the state, that decision is made by the federal government.
The short article reports on criticism from US Senator John Hoeven and Congressman Keven Cramer.
Every one of you concerned in the state of North Dakota must pressure those two to help lead an effort to cut the funding for refugee resettlement this fall. They can mouth their complaints here in their home state news, but will they work to turn off the spigot of federal funding? That is where the rubber meets the road!
And, one final thought. Do you see how this works, they get refugees spread out in cities and towns, large and small, then they bring in the relatives so it makes it all harder to stop. (How can you be so hateful to break up families and friends.)
See our North Dakota archive here.