Charlotte Refugees & Advocates Worry About Impact of Travel Ban

CHARLOTTE, NC – Day-Day is a refugee who moved to Charlotte seven years ago.

She fled persecution as a minority in Myanmar and lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for 20 years. She loves her new home, where she’s become a citizen and voted in the last election.

Under President Trump’s executive order all refugees are banned from entering the country for 120 days.

“People are coming here to start their lives over and find a safe place to live,” explains Rachel Humphries with Refugee Support Services.

750 refugees settled in Charlotte just the past year and 17,000 since 1975.

Over the past six months most refugees in Charlotte have come from Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, formerly Burma, and Bhutan.

David Hains with the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte says Catholic Support Services was expecting two refugee families to arrive in Charlotte soon, one from Syria and the other from Somalia.

Now that’s on hold.

“We are disappointed in the executive order,” Hains says.

He hopes the ban remains temporary.

“Work something out so that we can continue to do what our faith calls us to do in settling refugees,” Hains says.

The executive order also bans citizens from seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days.

Hameed Darweesh, who is headed to Charlotte, was detained at JFK airport over the weekend.

The Iraqi national is allowed in the country under a special immigrant visa for his work as an interpreter during the Iraq War.