U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial refugee policy has caused Christian nonprofit World Relief to lay off more than 140 of its employees and shutter five local offices.
On Feb. 15, World Relief issued a written statement announcing its plan to lay off more than 140 staff members as a result of Trump’s order to reduce by half the number of refugees to be resettled in the U.S. this year. The nonprofit said the layoffs will cause them to lose “decades of organizational expertise” and reduce their capacity to serve the people who are in need, the Catholic Register details.
“Our staff at each of these locations have served diligently and sacrificially — some of them for many years — and we are deeply saddened to have to make this difficult decision,” World Relief president Scott Arbeiter said in a written statement.
World Relief’s U.S. director of church mobilization Matthew Soerens told Religious News Service that some of their workers were already laid off before they made the announcement. He added that the remaining layoffs and closures will be done gradually. They will close a total of five offices in Idaho, Ohio, Miami, Tennessee, and Maryland.
World Relief is not the only group affected by Trump’s refugee policy. Last month, Alphabet Inc.’s Google recalled some of its staff to the U.S. after the immigration order was implemented, Bloomberg reports.
In a note to his employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Trump’s controversial policy will affect more than 100 of their workers. Some of them were abroad and were en route to the U.S. before the immigration order was carried out.
Although Google did not reveal if there were any of its employees who were either detained or blocked from their flights to the U.S., a company spokeswoman said they are concerned that the order would hinder them from “bringing great talent” into the country.
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