Herbert solicits the President to let more refugees in to Utah

Madi Giles helps Tazez Gebre from Ethiopia with mail at the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection.

LOGAN – Utah Governor Gary Herbert wrote a letter to President Donald J. Trump recently regarding the refugee resettlement policies of the administration.

Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection is where local refugees find help to become self sufficient.

“I encourage you to allow us to accept more international refugees in Utah,” the letter said. “We historically accepted and resettled more than 1,000 refugees each year from a variety of troubled regions in the world.”

Herbert said Utah is eager to see the number of admittance rise again.

The letter goes on to say that Utah was founded on religious refugees fleeing persecution in the Eastern United States 170 years ago.

“As a result, we empathize deeply with individuals and groups who have been forced from their homes and we love giving them a new home and a new life,” he said. “Those refugees who resettle in Utah become integrated and accepted into our communities.”

He said Utah is far from reaching its limit of accepting the refugees.

When refugees make it to Cache Valley, they are put in touch with the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection (CRIC) at 429 South Main Street in Logan.

CRIC is doing a huge work by integrating refugees into Cache Valley. They help them become economically self-sufficient by helping them find employment, transportation, housing and schooling.

People also come to CRIC for help with job applications, some need to have their bills read to them, some have mail they need interpreted, and various other reasons.

Madi Giles helps Tazez Gebre from Ethiopia at the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection in Logan on Wednesday.

CRIC teaches different adult education classes, among them driver’s license courses, English and citizenship classes.

Nelda Ault, one of the founders of the volunteer organization, worked for the Department of Workforce Services helping with refugees from about 2011 to 2013. When they reallocated funding, she co-founded the local refugee organization .

Ault is currently an adviser at the Utah State University Career Center and volunteers at the refugee center.

“I have a passion for helping these people integrate into our culture,” she said. “I like to have people remember where they come from and bring what they have to the table and share it with what we have.”

The organization has nine board members who are from across Cache Valley, including college professors, an attorney and other professionals.

“I feel like what Governor Herbert said is very much in line with what he has expressed before about refuges,” she said. “I like that he continues the same message, though it may be a hard political position to be in.”

She said others may not feel the way he does, but he continues to want to help refugees.

Randy Williams, vice president and member of the board of trustees for Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection, said Governor Herbert echoes what we feel in Cache Valley about refugees.

Refugees make our community better, she said.                                                          .

“He has done some impressive things to voice his support for refugees in Utah and the U.S.,” she said. “He has continued to champion refugee resettlement in Utah and the United States.”

Williams said Cache Valley has been welcoming to refugees. However, there is room for improvement.

“Less than one percent get resettled,” she said “We can do better.”

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2 Comments

  • Tom November 7, 2019 at 8:37 am Reply

    Have these people considered for a moment the drawbacks of bringing in large numbers of foreigners from dangerous and vastly opposed countries, to live in one place? Have they read any history about the consequences of ethnic diversity? Isn’t it strange, the same people who complain that European Imperial powers ignored ethnic boundaries when making African nations (many ethnicities in one country), with tribal war and oppression as a result, champion this same “diversity” as a tremendous strength and source of safety in our land!?! Absurd and treacherous.

    Do they read the news about the inter-ethnic crimes and tensions, and think that is all worth it because they get to help people who happen to be a different race from them? What about our own people who are struggling and need help? Would you extend charity and resources to the children of others while your own children are deprived nd vulnerable?

    Integrating these refugees and immigrants can be terribly expensive. And we will always suffer from the ones who fail to integrate, whether that be from crimes they commit against us, or resources/funds they take from us that could have been spent on our own people. Every people in the world puts their own first. There is no evil in that. Evil is turning away from one’s own family and one’s own people, and devoting oneself to others for the sake of novelty, or worse, to show off how progressive and “virtuous” one is.

    Let’s take our own side again. NOBODY will put us and our children first, if not ourselves. It is our responsibility.

  • Maryanne November 8, 2019 at 9:54 am Reply

    Utah does not need any more refugees. These refugees are primarily economic migrants. If they were in fact refugees, why not flee to the nearest safe country? The reason is that the nearest country does not offer any many benefits as the United States does. We are being taking advantage of. It is close to impossible for a third world migrant to fully integrate into an advanced economy.

    We do not need any more diversity, and we do not need any more people who are a huge economic, cultural, and possibly legal liability.

    The United States is already one of the most diverse nations on earth and perhaps in history as well. Contrary to popular believe more diversity does not strengthen communities but atomizes them. For the sake of these “refugees” and us do not accept them.

    Logan is one of the few places left were a sense of community still holds. Bring more economic migrants in will only decrease this. What is more, it will degrade our infrastructure further, cost the tax payer millions of dollars, add to the housing issue, increase crime rates and decrease social cohesion.

    If you want to host economic migrants, fine, but host them in your own home and support them with your own dollars and not mine.

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