North Dakota County to vote whether to stop accepting refugees

Shirley Dykshoorn, a vice president for Lutheran Social Services, which has handled North Dakota's refugee resettlement cases, said her agency used to handle about 400 cases per year, but that number dropped to 124 in fiscal-year 2019.

Dykshoorn said Burleigh County had been projected to receive no more than 25 refugees annually in the coming years.

"I'm trying to understand the basis for believing how 25 people will dramatically change the fabric of a community," she said. "What does it say to the rest of the country when a county where your capital city is located would choose not to participate?"

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Mountainmanbob said:

North Dakota county to vote on whether to stop accepting refugees

"This isn't about skin color," Becker said. "In the past, nobody had any say whatsoever. Now we have something that should have been in place decades ago."

Bismarck Mayor Steve Bakken, a Republican, said the city government had no say in the matter, but he sided with those who wanted to stop taking in more refugees.

"We have burgeoning school enrollment, veterans' needs, homeless needs and Native American needs,” he said, adding: "This isn't about heartstrings, this is about purse strings.”

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Shirley Dykshoorn, a vice president for Lutheran Social Services, which has handled North Dakota's refugee resettlement cases, said her agency used to handle about 400 cases per year, but that number dropped to 124 in fiscal-year 2019.

Dykshoorn said Burleigh County had been projected to receive no more than 25 refugees annually in the coming years.

"I'm trying to understand the basis for believing how 25 people will dramatically change the fabric of a community," she said. "What does it say to the rest of the country when a county where your capital city is located would choose not to participate?"

Click to expand...

WaPo said:

For four hours, sixth-generation North Dakotans and recent arrivals from Cameroon and Congo took turns delivering impassioned testimony in what was often a contentious debate. Ultimately, the commission voted 3-2 to keep welcoming refugees.

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The decision largely carried symbolic resonance. The Trump administration has slashed the number of refugee arrivals nationwide, and Burleigh County, which has roughly 95,000 residents, took in just 24 refugees during fiscal year 2019, according to the North Dakota governor’s office. The community — home to Bismarck, the state’s capital — is slated to receive a similar number of refugees in fiscal year 2020, and the measure that passed on Monday caps the number of new arrivals at 25.

Still, residents who packed the cafeteria saw the vote as a referendum on what their community values.

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