Groups: Refugee Program Halt Impacts Most Vulnerable

BALTIMORE (AP) — Refugee resettlement organizations say that an executive order halting the refugee program and temporarily barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States impacts the most vulnerable. They say many are fleeing persecution from the same terrorist organizations the American government is concerned about.

At a news conference at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore on Monday, Nina Zelic, director for refugee services for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said the ban "snuffs out the beacon of light held up by the Statue of Liberty." She says the faith community condemns President Donald Trump's order.

Zelic says, "nations are judged by how they treat the most vulnerable. Helping refugees is essential to what it means to be American."

A judge has temporarily blocked the order.

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