"Unfortunately we're at the whim of the administration that's in power," the nonprofit's managing director, Ron Buzard, said. "We don't know what the next four years will hold for refugee resettlement. At this point, I think everybody is focused on what we can do today."
The African Community Center's Thanksgiving dinner, held at the Assumption of the Theotokos Cathedral in Glendale, hosted more than 900 people on Monday night. Refugees and community members dined on dishes from around the world, including Ukraine, Ethiopia and Syria.
Despite Buzard's fears, the refugees at the Thanksgiving dinner said that politics wasn't on their minds. Charles Masirika, a refugee from the Congo living in Aurora, said he's "not political." Amina Zahir, from Morocco, said "I don't think anyone here is thinking about politics." Shafi Osman, a refugee from Somalia, said he doesn't like to talk about politics, "but I'm always optimistic. People have different thoughts, but for me, I'm always optimistic, and I wish things will be better."
The African Community Center's Thanksgiving dinner, held at the Assumption of the Theotokos Cathedral in Glendale, hosted more than 900 people on Monday night. Refugees and community members dined on dishes from around the world, including Ukraine, Ethiopia and Syria.
Despite Buzard's fears, the refugees at the Thanksgiving dinner said that politics wasn't on their minds. Charles Masirika, a refugee from the Congo living in Aurora, said he's "not political." Amina Zahir, from Morocco, said "I don't think anyone here is thinking about politics." Shafi Osman, a refugee from Somalia, said he doesn't like to talk about politics, "but I'm always optimistic. People have different thoughts, but for me, I'm always optimistic, and I wish things will be better."
Also keeping his distance from any political concerns was Ricardo Gambetta, the manager of Aurora's Office of International and Immigrant Affairs. OIIA has sponsored the event for three years.
"I try to stay away from politics," Gambetta told Westword. "We continue working in the same effort that we have been working in for the last nine years. We're very happy that we have a great community."
However, speaking for the immigrant and refugee community in Aurora, Gambetta admitted, "There are some concerns. I feel like we have to wait and see. We don't want to overreact." When asked about his thoughts on how Operation Aurora, Trump's plan for mass deportations, might affect his work, Gambetta said he would "prefer not to talk about that."
For his part, Buzard couldn't shake concerns about how the next presidency will impact his resettlement work. Nonprofit leaders in Aurora have voiced similar worries.
Refugee resettlement is dependent on ceilings set by the president. Each year, the number of refugees that can be admitted to the United States is established by the president, with consultation from Congress, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank.
"The politics of the day greatly impact refugee resettlement," Buzard said, adding that even if looming immigration changes weren't on attendees' minds last night, it's "without a doubt" something they think about regularly.
"They still have family members who are going through that process, applying for refugee status, who maybe had refugee status for years, but because the wheels have turned too slowly haven't made it yet," he said. "It's on their mind, as well, if they think of their loved ones."
Ever since the Refugee Resettlement Act was enacted in 1980, the number of refugees admitted to the United States has trended downward, but U.S. State Department data shows that resettlement reached its lowest levels between 2016 and 2020, when Trump served his first term as president.
During the Obama administration, the United States resettled between 60,000 and 80,000 each year. During the Trump presidency, that number dropped to 50,000 in 2017, then to 20,000 to 30,000 in 2018 and 2019. By the time the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, the number of refugees who came to the U.S. had dropped to around 12,000.
The number of refugees admitted during President Joe Biden's administration remained low in his first year, with only 11,000 refugees arriving in 2021. The number climbed back up quickly though, with 25,000 refugees coming in 2022, another 60,000 in 2023 and more than 100,000 so far in 2024.
Colorado is home to more than 75,000 refugees, according to the Office of New Americans, a state agency. Last year, the African Community Center of Denver resettled nearly 1,400 refugees into the Denver metro area, a 30 percent increase from last year and the most in a single year since the nonprofit began resettling in 2001, the group reports.
Trump's talk of mass deportation started during the presidential race, when a flurry of headlines in August claimed that Aurora apartment buildings were being taken over by gangs of violent Venezuelan migrants. The controversy attracted so much attention that Trump came to Aurora on October 11 to announce his plans for mass deportation.
The term "migrant" refers to people who immigrate to the U.S. for work or economic reasons. "Refugee" is a term legally defined in the United States as "someone of special humanitarian concern," because they're either fleeing persecution or fear of persecution for being a member of a social or political group, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Although many Venezuelans are coming to Denver and the U.S. out of fear of persecution by the government of President Nicolas Maduro, refugee status has to be applied from abroad, according to USCIS. Recent arrivals from Venezuela are often called migrants, but many apply for asylum, which is done within U.S. borders and doesn't have federal admission limits.
For now, Buzard has a wait-and-see attitude. He plans to tackle any changes Trump makes to refugee resettlement alongside the same refugee and support community that has been showing up to break bread for the Thanksgiving dinners for nearly two decades.
"What comes, we'll deal with it somehow," Buzard said. "We'll come together as a community and continue to try and help as many people as we can."
But at least for one night, Denver's refugees were happy to be among others like themselves. According to Masirika, his only thoughts during dinner were that "I'm thankful to be here in the U.S." and that the night was more about "seeing other people, seeing other cultures, finding out food from different countries."
"It's all about sharing culture, sharing stories, sharing food," Osman explained. "It's beautiful to have the whole world in one spot, for people to integrate, to share."
