Only 15 of 150 refugees who were supposed to move to Bangor over the next several months made it to the area before President Donald Trump canceled flights last week.
Catholic Charities Maine was prepared to welcome 150 refugees to the Bangor area and another 240 to the Portland area from October 2024 to September 2025, said Charles Mugabe, director of migration for Catholic Charities.
But Bangor welcomed only 15 refugees while 101 people moved to Portland before flights were canceled.
Refugees are people who leave their country due to persecution or fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Refugees already approved for travel to the U.S., some with years of vetting, had their flights canceled by Trump on Jan. 22, with an email sent by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program saying, “refugee arrivals to the United States have been suspended until further notice,” the Associated Press reported.
Twenty one more refugees were supposed to arrive in mid-February, Mugabe said. However, that will not happen for the foreseeable future.
The uncertainty and rapidly changing information makes it difficult to know what comes next as people are stuck in limbo, Mugabe said.
“I would encourage and invite [the] Maine community to support local resettlement offices in their area,” Mugabe said.
Catholic Charities is telling families in Maine to call the overseas resettlement camps to try to find out what is happening to their loved ones.
The organization is also telling the families stuck waiting to call their congressional representatives.
“There’s a lot of information coming in at the same time which makes it slightly challenging to navigate,” Mugabe said. “But, that’s why we’re here so we can support our clients who are here and also help them navigate through this information so that they’re at least aware of what is going on as we also receive guidance.”
Catholic Charities has resettled refugees since 1975 in the Portland area and expanded to the Bangor area around 2022. Despite myths, refugees who are employable adults are able to work as soon as they arrive.
About 100 refugees were resettled in the Bangor area last fiscal year, they came from 11 different countries from the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and more.
