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Refugee advocate: "I wish we had extreme vetting for [politicians] as much as we do for refugees"

Samaritas is the largest resettler of refugees in Michigan.
Courtesy of Samaritas
Samaritas is the largest resettler of refugees in Michigan.

Stateside's conversation with Chris Cavanaugh, director of the refugee resettlement program for Samaritas

The White House continues to insist that the President's executive orders on immigrants and refugees will make America safer.

The West Michigan group Samaritas begs to differ.

Samaritas is the largest resettler of refugees in Michigan and the fourth largest in the nation.

Chris Cavanaugh, resettlement program manager of Samaritas for West Michigan, joined Stateside to talk about the challenges that refugees are dealing with in the wake of President Trump's immigration orders.

Cavanaugh said Samaritas resettles between 900 and 1,200 refugees each year and the recent travel ban has been "kind of a bulldozer" to the organization. It's separated families and is a "detriment to some very vulnerable people." Cavanaugh also is not sure how the ban will make the country safer.

Listen to the full interview above to hear about the options refugees have while this ban is in place and a personal story about one of Cavanaugh's clients who's now unable to reunite with family after five years apart.

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