Trump's Refugee Ban Forces Job Cuts At Nashville's Catholic Charities Office

NASHVILLE, TN — The refugee resettlement office of Nashville-based Catholic Charities of Tennessee laid of 13 employees, faced with a budget shortfall in the wake of President Donald Trump's refugee moratorium.

The 13 represents 29.5 percent of the staff at the refugee resettlement office as Catholic Charities becomes the second Nashville refugee resettlement agency hit by the refugee ban after World Relief closed its Nashville office last week.

Refugee resettlement agencies receive federal funding to cover administrative costs based on a per-refugee formula. With far fewer refugees expected — the president's executive order caps refugee entries at 50,000 for fiscal year 2017, even after the suspension is lifted — Catholic Charities of Tennessee executive director Pam Russo told the Diocese of Nashville's Tennessee Register that her hands were tied.

“We had to close tremendous budget gaps and we didn’t see another way to do it,” Russo said. “We really looked at every possible way of maintaining our current staff level and we could not make it work.”

In the fiscal year that ended in September 2016, Catholic Charities of Tennessee resettled 637 refugees. After World Relief's closure, Catholic Charities and Nashville International Center for Empowerment are the only refugee resettlement offices in the city.

Those laid off include supervisors and newer employees, and include some former refugees. Most of the positions that Catholic Charities was forced to eliminate were in the areas of reception and placement, those who make arrangements for new refugees and assist them when they first arrive in the country.

“Now our primary focus will shift to refugees who are here already in the areas of employment and helping them get to self-sufficiency,” Russo told the Register.

Image via Diocese of Nashville