SALISBURY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Leaders of Lutheran Services Carolinas, an organization that helps legal refugees entering the country, say their national partners received a cease-and-desist order not to help refugees that have just entered the country under new executive orders.
Although some of President Donald Trumps’ orders have been walked back a bit since his first day in office, the CEO of Lutheran Services Carolinas says this could have a major impact on how the Salisbury-based organization operates going forward.
They’re able to help through humanitarian aid right now, giving new refugees food and shelter, but there’s something that happened over the weekend that’s making it even harder for them to do their jobs.
Mohammed Al Kassar was in Syria when civil war broke out and he fled to a refugee camp in the Kingdom of Jordan.
“I think it was bad circumstances, bad for people’s livelihoods, but better than war,” said Al Kassar, speaking in Arabic about the refugee camp and using Google Translate into English.
Al Kassar applied for asylum. After 10 years in the refugee camp, he got to come to the United States.
“It is different now; it is good, and I live a stable life here with my wife and children, and my family are very happy here in America,” said Al Kassar.
He went through the Lutheran Services Carolinas’ refugee resettlement program and now works for the organization.
The group also has offices in Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Asheville, Salisbury, and Raleigh in North Carolina.
The CEO says they helped more than 1,800 refugees in the Carolinas last year, from countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ukraine.
The refugees have been vetted and are coming to the U.S. legally, either from refugee camps or who are seeking asylum from war-torn countries.
“We help people get jobs, English classes if needed, but help people get jobs and get on their feet and hopefully to be self-sufficient,” said Ted Goins, President and CEO of Lutheran Services Carolinas.
Goins says there are major concerns about the future of the refugee resettlement program following Trump’s executive orders.
But something else happened over the weekend that made him even more frustrated.
Elon Musk shared a post on social media platform X, which he owns, from one of Trump’s former administration officials during his first term. Then-national security advisor Mike Flynn singled out “Lutheran Family Services” around the country and said, “Now it’s the ‘Lutheran’ faith (this use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end).”
In the post, Musk, part of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, said, “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments.”
“I never thought that I would be sitting here in front of a camera defending any of the work that the church does,” Goins responded. “We’ve been the hands and feet of Christ, that’s how we see ourselves, we’ve also been the hands of feet of the government.”
Goins says his organization feels under attack by Musk and is concerned about not only refugee resettlement programs but faith-based funding for senior services and childcare as well.
