NOTE: Refugee Resettlement funds were cut on Friday, January 24. These funds were not restored by the Federal Court injunction on January 28 temporarily blocking a federal funding freeze.
On Friday evening we received notice that the U.S. State Department withdrew funding that was committed to the resettlement of refugees who are already in Minnesota. This stop-work order directs us to immediately stop providing all initial resettlement services.
Initial government funding provides the most basic assistance to cover food, shelter, and utilities during a refugee’s first 3-months in Minnesota. This order means the State Department has suddenly defaulted on its commitment made to refugees who were invited to be resettled in the U.S. after they were forced to flee their homelands.
In essence, promises by the U.S. government have been revoked to vulnerable people who legally entered our country less than three months ago. This has a devastating impact on the 109 newly-arrived clients we committed to serving, our devoted staff of 33, and the infrastructure of our organization.
For 37 years, Arrive Ministries has stood with the persecuted, and we won’t stop now. We need emergency support to fill this sudden and significant gap to prevent refugee families in our communities from going hungry and homeless.
Despite the indefinite suspension of our resettlement contract, as people of faith, together, we must not stray from our commitment to follow Jesus’ call to love and welcome the stranger.
In the next month, we need to raise $250,000 to continue providing these families with the services they were promised and desperately need.
We ask you to stand in the GAP that has abruptly opened for our newest neighbors who have called Minnesota home for only a few weeks. Help us stand in the GAP now
Give – We ask for your financial support to ensure our refugee neighbors are not abandoned.
Advocate – We ask for your voice to defend the stranger.
Pray – We ask for your ceaseless prayers to our God who loves the foreigner.
In the face of this unimaginable situation, now is the time for the Church to be the hands and feet of Jesus for these families.
