Vermont budget heavily tested by 239% rise in refugees

By Dave Fidlin | The Center Square

Workforce development, enrollment into English language courses, and driver’s license procurement has eaten away at $500,000 in Vermont’s budget earmarked “aid to refugees.”

So when a Haitian man and his young son recently showed up at the border, as snow fell, there was nowhere for them to go and no budget. It is a situation that could repeat: refugees to the state are up 239% since 2019, the year before the pandemic.

“I got a call from the border patrol two weeks ago,” Tracy Dolan, director of the Vermont State Refugee Office within the Agency of Human Services, told the Senate Committee on Appropriations in their meeting this week. “A Haitian man had shown up with his young son; it was snowing out. The directions are to let them in. There’s nobody for them, so I referred them to one of the asylum seeking organizations to help them out. There’s no budget for them.”

Dolan and her office are seeking seeking additional funds – $350,000 – to assist with resettlement efforts. In some instances, Dolan said the State Refugee Office can only use federal funds for specific recipients – most notably, people coming from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Dolan’s appearance before the committee served as an opportunity to provide testimony. No official next steps were mapped out, though further direction could take place in the months ahead.

The State Refugee Office collaborates with the state’s two resettlement agencies: the Vermont office of the U.S. Committees for Refugees and Immigrants, and the Ethiopian Community Development Council.

The increase from 2019 is significant in part because of the difference from the COVID-19 years. In 2020 and 2021, there were only 21 and 47 refugees, respectively.

While there are processes in place for widespread cases, such as the Afghanistan evacuation, Dolan said the more isolated, case-by-case occurrences can be complex and are part of the office’s request for additional funding.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons/Rhododendrites

13 thoughts on “Vermont budget heavily tested by 239% rise in refugees

  1. Send a few down to my place, I’ll pay them $3/hr to cut the lawn, shovel out the driveway, cut and split some firewood, etc, etc. First though they need to be checked for TB, Diphtheria and Rabies.

    I know that out West, the local Mexicans are extremely hardworking people and really do not care at all for these interlopers who undercut them in the labor market due to heavey government subsidies.

    • Yirgach, I haven’t heard your name before. I looked it up. Seems its Ethiopian. Are you a refugee? Have you ever been paid $3/hr in the US?
      Your comment is really nasty.

  2. The budget considerations of the refugee issue also fails to account for the hundreds of productive, diligent and skilled Vermonters who are “freedom refugees” and have left the state for places where they are not treated like piggy banks to be broken open…

  3. This situation is very unfortunate for the minority of Vermonters, that would be the readership of TNR. But on the other hand it will force the reality of third world immigration on the sanctimonious liberals, the greatest reality of which will be the crime and littering.

  4. Work force development.

    They are building a 200 room dormitory at Sugarbush for “workforce” housing, aka migrant labor.

    Vermonters say good by to your state, they won’t let you build your own home and now they are selling your jobs to foreigners. You are in the way for the “you will own nothing and be happy” plan, otherwise known as build back better.

    They’ll be doing this is in EVERY TOWN, with their agenda 2030 plan for housing in village centers, in apartment buildings owned by the state and their cronies.

    Montpelier is not concerned about the average Vermont wage earner, you cost too much! You own your own home. We want you to rent and pay cheaper wages. It’s all good for you. We love you they say…..

    oh and the tiny house is really convenient, because we can move you around if we need to. Don’t ge to used to one place, we own you , you are our slave. They can’t wait to chip you. lol…..

    pimpin’ for the nwo…….

  5. I find it quite interesting that the people that feel they are saving the planet are making our lives a living hell.
    Does the crisis in mental health not show these people this?
    How about the suicide rates- even in kids.
    The drug addiction, the drinking.. people are not wired to deal with what is being forced upon us so they are self medicating in massive numbers- to their deaths.

    The advancement of our civilization is declining, our life expectancy is dropping.
    How good is your human experience going- as you struggle in this day and age to find and pay for basic needs.

    How is this progress?

    And as this all goes on with the American taxpayers- we are flooding our nation with illegal mouths to feed and we’re being told this is good.

    “Men, it’s been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses one by one- and slowly”

    –Charles MacKay

    • Reminds me of this from Marcus Aurelius:

      ‘The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.’

  6. And not the Vt. Supreme Court has ruled we have to allow non-citizens to vote. — Won’t be long before they can take our homes and possessions for them too.

  7. but but but diversity is our greatest strength or some such bull crap. Just more mouths to feed that can’t fend for themselves and most will turn to crime to supplement their handouts. What ever happened to screening immigrants to make sure they had skills to support themselves and would be a benefit to the US not a burden? Invaders now get more benefits then do the elderly on SS, and way more then homeless Vets.

  8. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

    Did I miss where it states free cell phones, room & board, medical coverage and
    no vetting or vaccinations, apparently you can toss our military to the curb for no
    vaccination………………..what a pathetic display.

    Get Joe into GITMO !!

    • I just read an interesting article where farmers in border states are having to destroy crops because of illegal immigrants walking through them and even living in them spreading waste and disease. This is a real issue when food is already so expensive.

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