Ninety-seven people were scheduled to arrive in Louisville this week to start new lives in the United States after living for years as refugees.
The travelers, including 47 children, expected to fly into the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where they would be greeted by people ready to help them navigate life in Louisville.
Their plans were scuttled when the State Department canceled all refugee travel to the U.S. following a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump.
“All of them have completed security screenings and been cleared to be resettled,” said Lisa DeJaco Crutcher, CEO of Catholic Charities of Louisville. “They had plane tickets and an arrival date and, in many cases, family members waiting for them.”
DeJaco Crutcher explained in an interview with The Record this week that refugees are admitted to the United States through legal pathways.
“All of the refugees are legal immigrants,” she said. “They are all being admitted pursuant to extensive screening through the State Department and … coming from places in the world that have suffered significant displacement of people — whether through natural disasters or civil conflict.”
‘All of the refugees are legal immigrants. They are all being admitted pursuant to extensive screening through the State Department and … coming from places in the world that have suffered significant displacement of people — whether through natural disasters or civil conflict.’
Lisa DeJaco Crutcher, Catholic Charities of Louisville
Catholic Charities of Louisville is Kentucky’s official representative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is one of nine U.S. agencies that has an agreement with the federal government to resettle refugees.
Catholic Charities’ Kentucky Office for Refugees coordinates refugee resettlement across the state. And Catholic Charities’ resettlement program assists refugees coming to Louisville with housing, language skills and employment, helping most to become financially self-sufficient within four months of their arrival, according to the agency’s website, cclou.org.
As refugee families learn to navigate the city, volunteers — often parishioners of area Catholic churches — offer mentorship and other assistance.
“This is a program that the U.S. government has had in place for over 50 years,” said DeJaco Crutcher, asserting that the U.S. ultimately benefits from welcoming refugees.
“The government invests in this program, and it returns money to the U.S. in the long term,” she said. “There’s an investment up front, but with the money the government gains in income tax after a short time, the government breaks even. Long-term, there’s a high return.”
DeJaco Crutcher dismissed recent comments by the vice president suggesting “the Catholic Church has a monetary interest” in resettling refugees.
“We use all of the funds we get from the federal government,” she said.
Colin Triplett, Catholic Charities’ director of intercultural services, said the refugee resettlement program “is really about family reunification.”
“There’s a lot of work being done to bring people to where they have familial connections,” he said.
Hope, the theme for Jubilee Year 2025, is also an important part of the program, he said.
“Some people will go through war zones or use rafts on the high seas” or find other dangerous routes in search of safety, Triplett said. “They don’t have hope. But the U.S. refugee program provides hope. They know it works.”
DeJaco Crutcher said the people who come through the legal process as refugees have “grit and determination.” They are among one percent of the world’s refugees, while millions of others live in refugee camps.
Triplett said the group scheduled to arrive this week were coming from Congo, Afghanistan, Syria and Central and South America.
In recent years, a majority of arrivals to Louisville have been Congolese, noted DeJaco Crutcher.
Yet “many have never been to Congo,” she said. “They were born in refugee camps, married, started their own family and are now being resettled as refugees.”
In addition to those scheduled to arrive this week, she said additional people were scheduled to arrive the second week of February and later in the month.
While the State Department ordered cancellations for the next 90 days, DeJaco Crutcher said Catholic Charities is operating on the assumption that the cancellation of arrivals will be continued.