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Yearning to breathe free

784,000 refugees have settled in the United States since 9/11. Guess how many have carried out fatal terrorist attacks? ZERO.

And yet….on Holocaust Remembrance Day, our President signed an executive order barring many refugees and immigrants from entering the United States. All this amid the largest worldwide refugee crisis the world has ever seen. Within 24 hours, lawyers with the ACLU worked to get a federal judge to temporarily block the order – and they were successful. While this gives us a bit of breathing room, we still have work to do.

This matters to us, Central MN, because this greatly affects our neighbors. For instance, one of our St. Cloud Somali-American neighbors has been following the legal process to bring his wife here for over 3 years. Now, because she is from Somalia, our government is working to keep this couple apart even longer – possibly indefinitely.

Here are 3 things you can do right now:

1. Sign this nationwide petition if you believe that “President Donald Trump should not halt refugee resettlement, lower the overall number of refugees we resettle, or stop resettlement based on religion or country of origin.”

2. Plan to attend our free event this Wednesday at 6pm at St. Cloud State, “The Shoah (Holocaust) through Muslim Eyes”. For more information, take a look at our Facebook event. #NeverAgain

3. Mark your calendar for February 22nd at 7pm. Tom Emmer, our Congressman, our voice in the White House, will be coming to the Sartell City Hall for a Stearns County Town Hall meeting. Won’t you join us in sharing your voice as one of his constituents?

We will continue to update you on things you can do here locally to stand up and speak out. #unitecloud leaders will be attending a meeting with Representative Ilhan Omar to know how we can join the state wide effort as well. There is a plan to live stream it on the Representative Ilhan Omar Facebook page – we will share it on our page when it gets started. Starting time is 3pm.

We are confident that with you by our side, #unitecloud, we can continue to resolve tension and restore dignity to ALL the people of Central MN.