WINOOSKI, Vt. (WCAX) – President Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about Somali refugees are reverberating in the Green Mountains, where advocates worry the remarks will harm community integration efforts.
“We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country,” Trump said on Tuesday, weighing in on multimillion-dollar welfare fraud allegations in Minnesota involving Somali refugees. “They have destroyed Minnesota.”
In the late 1990s, during the Somali Civil War, with the country facing famine and persecution, the United States vowed to welcome Somalis as refugees. Since 2003, Chittenden County has welcomed some 600 refugees.
In the more than two decades since, advocates say the Somali refugees have played an important role in the community and have contributed to the local economy and culture.
“They are our workforce, our family, our friends and educators, they are staple members of our community,” said Nathan Virag with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont, which assists with asylum claims, green cards, refugees, and job training.
Virag said comments like Trump’s have a chilling effect on refugee communities and cause people to pull back further from public life and integration into the community. “If the government was concerned they were not trying to integrate, this is a way to prevent them from trying to integrate further,” Virag said.
In communities like Winooski, where diversity is part of its identity, local leaders said they are saddened about the comments and their real-world impact.
“When you have these people who are integral members of the community all of a sudden thinking they shouldn’t be a part of the community or out and about as much, it really hurts everyone,” said Interim Winooksi Mayor Thomas Renner.
The Winooski School District raised a Somali flag on Friday in solidarity with the community and to send a message that they are welcome in Vermont.
