Trump Travel Ban Will Impact Missoula Refugees, Says Soft Landing
The recent travel ban on seven countries issued by President Donald Trump via an Executive Order, puts a pause on travel between Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya and the U.S. for non-citizens and non-green card holders. The order also restricts refugees from these countries. According to Mary Poole, Executive Director of Soft Landing Missoula, the order directly impacts Missoula.
"It definitely has an impact on Missoula and the settlement here in terms of the refugees that have already been placed here," said Poole. "There is no indication that they would be affected in terms of having to return or being deported. They should be safe here. The impact that it does have on them is that many refugees nationwide have other family members somewhere in the process."
Poole says that there are already a couple Iraqi and Syrian families in Missoula. She also hopes that the intensive review of the system can help make it even better.
"I hope that they find that the program is very safe, it has a really safe track record," Poole said. "If there are further safety measures that we can take we absolutely should take those. I can speak to Soft Landing's work saying that we definitely have plenty of work to do and will be keep very busy over the next four months."
President Obama scheduled the number of refugees to enter the U.S. this fiscal year at 110,000, but Trump has reduced that number to 50,000 total. Despite the reduction, Poole says Soft Landing will continue to be very busy.