I am not lost on the irony that June is Refugee Awareness Month, and The United States of America, a nation built by the foreign-born, has, for all intents and purposes, turned its back on refugees.

The current administration suspended (and tried to end) the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), a process that has successfully resettled and integrated over 3 million refugees since 1980. True, it has admitted a smattering of 100 Afrikaners from South Africa, 160 "injunction protected" refugees as part of the Pacito v. Trump lawsuit, a small group of Afghans as part of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program who are paying for their way, and a minute number of those granted waivers at the discretion of the Secretary of State. But for these little exceptions, the door to America is largely shut and soldered shut for now. The International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) has not received a new arrival since January 16 — our longest stretch without a new arrival in recent history.     

Forget about the humanitarian argument that our government thoroughly vetted and accepted thousands of refugees and then left them in the lurch. The administration is also ignoring the mountains of data that show excluding refugees is harmful to the economy and that refugees contribute a monumental net positive for the economy than they take to get started. We have more information about this on our website. 

For their own ends, politicians and pundits have conflated refugees coming via resettlement with migrants who are in the United States without the proper documentation or who are seeking asylum. These are separate groups.

It is equally important to note that the Constitution protects all people from the government regardless of their citizenship status. The government has attempted to end the process by which people can defend themselves against unlawful detention (habeas corpus).

Merely being in our country without proper documentation is not a crime; it is a civil offense — the legal equivalent of a traffic ticket. In and of itself, this does not make someone a criminal. If the government finds that someone is present without a lawful immigration status, once the case is adjudicated in court, the government can remove that person from the country, and due process has been administered. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s role is to facilitate those removals.

However, what is happening in practice right now is a far cry from what the administration said was their removal priority — going after and removing criminals who are in the country illegally. That is, people who are here without documentation and have been convicted of crimes such as murder, rape, theft, human trafficking, and gang activity.   

In recent weeks, there have been numerous instances of ICE mistakenly arresting or detaining individuals who are naturalized, hold green cards, or have other legal permission to be in the country and possess the necessary documentation to prove it on their person.

What is also missing right now is the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in cases where there are compelling circumstances to allow an immigrant to remain in the US. For example, is it in our country's best interest to force the wife of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran to breastfeed her nine-week-old daughter in a detention facility because of an administrative mistake from years ago? Does it help everyday Americans when ICE performs dragnets on restaurants, meatpacking plants, and farms, terrorizing otherwise law-abiding people who do necessary work that few who are born here want to do?

This administration's "arrest them all and let someone else sort it out later on" tactic seems to be an attempt to inflate the numbers to meet a senseless quota, allowing the government to claim success in greater numbers of immigration-related arrests. Unfortunately, the costs for this craven political gain are the lives of good people who "did things the right way" and the businesses that employ them.

If you find this as upsetting as I do, please voice your concerns with your elected representatives. The quickest way to do that is to call them.

Jennifer Rizzo-Choi, 
Executive Director

Buffalo Without Borders returns on Thursday, August 14 from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.

The Erie Canal was the conduit that brought economic prosperity and social change to Western New York and the rest of the country. Join us in recognizing and celebrating the contributions of foreign-born people to the building of the canal and America during its bicentennial celebration. Join us for events at Canalside in Downtown Buffalo!

When it comes time to give as part of the Give 716 campaign on July 15-16, we hope you will consider us worthy of your donation!

If you use Bluesky for social media, we are there too! Follow us!

Stay cool and safe during the summer with flyers in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Dari, English, Karen, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, and Ukrainian.

This month, Executive Director Jennifer Rizzo-Choi was on WKBW to discuss the impacts of the Trump administration’s travel ban on citizens from 12 countries and restrictions on citizens travelling from seven others.

We were honored to welcome 43 people from 24 countries while they took their citizenship oaths at a special U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremony on the USS Little Rock. We welcomed New Americans from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa), France, Germany, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Türkiye, United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Yemen.

In addition, earlier this month, we welcomed 40 New Americans from 21 countries as they took their citizenship oaths at the Robert H. Jackson United States Courthouse in downtown Buffalo. These New Americans are from: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Türkiye, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.

We invited former and current clients to select donated household goods and food from Habitat for Humanity, along with the opportunity to purchase produce from FeedMore WNY’s food truck at a reduced cost. We helped about 130 people that day!

The Partnership for the Public Good was on hand to distribute materials regarding lead poisoning while we provided resources on skincare, pest control, and summer safety. We also offered additional resources on our integration and employment services, as well as new volunteer programs.

Learn more and see photos from that event.

Oftentimes the accomplishments of people in the minority are overlooked in favor of the those in the mainstream. That does not make their contributions to our country any less significant or exclude them from of the American tapestry.

Every month, we celebrate the people behind the scenes who the International Institute of Buffalo the wonderful organization that it is. Here it is, in case you missed it.

This month, 61 volunteers and interns contributed 550 hours of service to our mission.

We would especially like to thank the teachers from Mount Mercy Academy for their assistance with the ongoing organization of our on-site donations room. We now have a much cleaner space to accept more strollers and box fans – essential items for the summer – and have a plethora of extra household goods that we just gave to clients at Community Help Day!

If you want to volunteer at IIB, just let us know.

The Employment Team secured job placements for 15 clients in June. Our team supported them through the entire hiring process and prepared them for success in the U.S. workforce through our Job Readiness Program. We continue to match clients with suitable employment opportunities aligned with their skills and career goals.

In a new partnership with Spectrum Health Services Buffalo Hope Program, we are helping clients understand the importance of mental wellness and healthy coping strategies. The Spectrum team will be joining our next Job Club session to offer a presentation and resources to support our clients in this effort.

Additionally, we are happy to welcome walk-in clients who are interested in our services. Throughout June, we offered a three-week Job Readiness Program, along with one-on-one employment support and job matching services.

Get more information on how our Employment Services team helps build the local economy and trains people to be exceptional employees.

In June, we were honored to welcome six professional delegates from Hungary through the Congressional Office for International Leadership’s Open World program: The Energy Security and Market Stability Program fosters collaboration between U.S. lawmakers and international energy leaders to explore best practices in energy security, market stability, and emerging energy sources.

This group, hosted by local families, met with the following organizations: the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning, EtaPRO LLC, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, New York Power Authority, University at Buffalo Sustainability Center, the office of Timothy M. Kennedy, and the WNY Clean Energy Hub. They also participated in a roundtable with local sustainability organizations and met with Buffalo’s Honorary Consul of Hungary.

This month, we also conducted a global communication training session for Leadership Buffalo, focusing on communication styles and cultural challenges.

Learn more about how our International Exchanges and Education team contributes to greater knowledge and understanding in our community.   

Our Interpreting & Translation team fielded over 1,500 requests for language access for more than 330 unique customers. The top requested languages were Arabic, Bengali, Dari, Spanish, and Swahili.

The team continued to maintain strong partnerships with local government agencies, including the Erie County Department of Health’s Office of Health Equity and the Department of Environment & Planning.

They also supported the richly diverse student population of Buffalo and the surrounding area during their state assessments in math and science, as well as with state exams for BOCES schools and the Buffalo Board of Education. One-third of all of June’s appointments were for school exams. We also had great success supporting the pilot program for virtual interpreting for New York State exams.

Email interpretation@iibuff.org to request interpreting services or to set up a consultation with our team. Get a quote for your vital documents by emailing translation@iibuff.org.

We are always looking for talented local interpreters and translators. Currently, linguists in the following languages are at the top of our list: Amharic, Karen, Kinyarwanda, Pashto, Russian, Somali, Tamil, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.  

If you are multilingual and interested in joining our team of linguists, click to apply.

NAI is continuing to see large numbers of clients and referrals for our Integration services! Included in these numbers are families relocating to Buffalo from out of state who are choosing IIB for their case management support. Recently, we helped a family of five from Burma, who relocated from Georgia, and a family of seven from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who came from Texas.

Click here to learn more about how immigrants and refugees contribute to our community.

Come Work with Us!

If you are interested, please take a look at our careers page.