WINOOSKI, Vt. (WCAX) – President Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about Somali refugees are reverberating in the Green Mountains, where advocates worry the remarks will harm community integration efforts.
“We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country,” Trump said on Tuesday, weighing in on multimillion-dollar welfare fraud allegations in Minnesota involving Somali refugees. “They have destroyed Minnesota.”
In the late 1990s, during the Somali Civil War, with the country facing famine and persecution, the United States vowed to welcome Somalis as refugees. Since 2003, Chittenden County has welcomed some 600 refugees.
In the more than two decades since, advocates say the Somali refugees have played an important role in the community and have contributed to the local economy and culture.