While the debate over refugees re-emerges in the national spotlight, it’s also a hot topic right now in the North Dakota Legislature.
Some lawmakers and local officials want greater say over the refugees that settle here.
Rep. Christopher Olson, R-West Fargo, testified Friday to the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee.
“These are very needy people,” he said. “They come from countries that have been wracked by war or famine other other massive problems and arriving in this country with very little. It takes a lot of help to get them on their feet.”
He said the burden to provide services for refugees falls to the state and local communities, and North Dakota leaders need to understand the full scope of refugees’ impact on the state to continue providing adequate services.
Olson proposed a bill that would give communities the power to ban refugee resettlement for a year if they determine they’ve reached their capacity to serve more refugees. It would also have allowed the governor to issue an executive order to prohibit new refugees from coming here.
After hours of testimony, lawmakers on the committee voted to scrap the original bill and instead study refugee resettlement issues.
But before that happened, numerous refugees told legislators the measure sends a message that new Americans are unwelcome. And they said a ban could prevent families from being reunited.
“It’s not about money,” said Zahra Mohamed, a refugee in Bismarck who has lived in the United States for 12 years. “It’s about fear. It’s coming from all the way from the top to local representatives.”
In supporting the bill, Dave Piepkorn of the Fargo City Commission highlighted the need for better communication. The Fargo area is home to 70 percent of the state’s refugee population.
He said the city commission does not have say in the number of people coming, nor much advance notice.
“From the perspective of our city, we love having refugees and it’s an obligation we’ve made,” he said. “We love for them to be successful. But we’ve got to have a better process.”
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota is the state’s refugee resettlement agency.
CEO Jessica Thomasson said her organization does consult with local communities. It holds quarterly meetings in the cities where it resettles refugees, to bring together the people who provide services to them.
“There’s a feeling that we’re not talking to the right people,” she said. “Sometimes what I’m hearing is perhaps the thinking now is that the persons who need to be consulted are the elected officials and not the staff who make up the infrastructure of any of these entities. That’s not something that I would presume to dictate. What we know is we do our very best to consult with, learn from, and talk with the people who work with the refugees and resettlement in our communities.”
The study advanced by the committee is meant to collect a host of data on refugees and analyze their impact on North Dakota.