Federal focus on deportation worries those who help Minnesota's refugees
As the federal government ramps up deportation efforts, an area organization says those efforts are striking fear into the wrong hearts.
In a historic St. Paul home, Sara Nelson has spent years helping refugees get the care they need.
This place is called the Healing Center, because most who come here were tortured in their home country.
"Our clients came to the United States because they were betrayed by their governments back home," Nelson said. "They came here seeking safety, they came here because they wanted to live in a democracy, they wanted to participate in a society here."
But now, Nelson says fear of deportation is keeping clients away — despite them being in the U.S. legally.
"The chaos and confusion, it's been really hard on our clients. They don't know if they can feel safe here, and they came to the U.S. specifically to feel safe," she said. "The level of fear that we're seeing is really unprecedented. It's definitely something we haven't seen to this level before."
For psychotherapist Connor Malloy, the fear now is that fear could keep victims of torture from getting the help they need.
"They're not eating as much as they should be. They're terrified to go out. They're terrified to socialize, those are all curative things," Malloy said. "These are the folks that are taking care of our elders in nursing homes, they're feeding our kids lunches in school, they're cleaning up our office buildings after hours. They're very much a fabric of our society and in our community, and they deserve to feel safe."
Nelson and Malloy say so far, none of their clients have been deported or detained. They say they'll continue to do the work each day as best they can.
