The End of Resettlement in West Virginia: Resettlement at Risk
West Virginia is one of five states now unable to welcome refugees. Can West Virginians revitalize their Refugee Program—and work with Congress to build a resettlement system they can rely on?
The End of Resettlement in West Virginia
West Virginia’s Refugee Program is no more.
Catholic Charities of West Virginia is one of the state’s largest social services nonprofits, with 18 offices serving all 55 counties. The agency was also West Virginia’s only resettlement office—until the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program this past spring.
For nearly forty years, they’ve resettled refugees across West Virginia each year—offering the heart of Appalachia as refuge to those fleeing persecution.
This year, as they were forced to wind down services, they resettled only four.
Next year, they will not resettle refugees.
West Virginia Needs a Refugee Floor
Catholic Charities of West Virginia is no different than America’s other 360 resettlement offices: they rely heavily on federal funds to do the work of the American government.
In 2024, 56% of the agency’s budget was funded by federal grants.
West Virginia’s Refugee Program has—or had—a bottom line; the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program does not.
Absent a refugee minimum, West Virginia will never have a reliable Refugee Program—leaving the state’s refugee families, social workers, and employers scrambling to weave together welcome from one presidential administration to the next.
To revitalize their Refugee Program and build a resettlement system they can rely on, West Virginians needs to work with Congress to establish a refugee floor.
Essential Care Workers
Promise, a refugee from Uganda, was working as a Certified Nurse Assistant in West Virginia’s nursing homes only six months after arriving to the United States.
When the pandemic hit, Promise felt an obligation to his fellow West Virginians—and risked his life to ensure those in need were cared for during a dangerous time:
“When COVID hit, it was a critical time and a very hard time for everyone…A lot of people got frustrated. I stayed because I needed to help and they needed us to help. I was like, ‘I can’t quit. I need to go ahead.’”
Promise isn’t the only critical care worker in West Virginia with an immigrant background; in April, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that immigrant workers make up nearly one-third of America’s direct care workforce for long-term care services.
A reliable Refugee Program protects the well-being of every West Virginian by ensuring new potential care workers enter the workforce each year. Only a reliable Refugee Program—and a resettlement minimum—ensures those arrivals continue.
Putting Food on the Table for West Virginians
Providing through Poultry Processing
In addition to caring for West Virginia’s elderly, refugees and immigrants also ensure food makes it to our tables—acting as a key labor force for some of the country’s largest meat processing plants.
West Virginia University’s Eberly Magazine reports that the Moorefield chicken processing plant has recruited refugee and immigrant workers since the 1990s. This plant has transformed the surrounding community—providing essential economic revitalization for families in Moorefield and food for American pantries. This is no cottage industry: poultry production contributes over $300 million a year to West Virginia’s economy.
Another kind of transformation has occurred in Moorefield: residents who live and work alongside the town’s refugee and immigrant families have “had a 180-degree transformation” in their views on immigration due to their relationships with their new neighbors, reports assistant professor of geography Cynthia Gorman.
“Some ended up advocating for and taking pretty substantial risks to support immigrant families, friends, neighbors and coworkers.”
Following indiscriminate workplace raids, Gorman found that fellow poultry processors and their neighbors mobilized to support immigrant children, landlords bought groceries for households who had lost key breadwinners and supported family reunifications, and community members grew more invested in bipartisan immigration reform efforts.
As the costs become clear, incentives for reform increase.
The loss of a reliable stream of new refugee employees will impact West Virginia’s poultry industry and surrounding communities, providing ample impetus for West Virginians to engage on practical immigration solutions like a resettlement floor.
Sustaining Soup Kitchens & Community Gardens
Moorefield isn’t the only town in West Virginia fed by immigrants.
In Charleston, Syrian couple Khetam and Asmael regularly volunteer at St. John’s Episcopal Church’s free meal program.
In addition to serving meals, they’ve helped lead the transformation of the Church’s unused lands into community gardens—utilizing agricultural techniques from their homeland to produce crops that can’t usually grow in West Virginia’s dry soil.
“The other gardeners said ‘oh, no! But I said, ‘Let him try.’ Needless to say we got sweet potatoes the size of our heads.”
Refugees are key contributors to local communities, often spending years devoted to volunteering after receiving volunteer assistance as they initially integrate into American life.
West Virginia’s Refugee Program is a key element of the state’s civil society—a key element currently at risk.
Strengthening Democracy & Security
West Virginians also see resettlement as a way to contribute to America’s security and strengthen global democratic norms.
Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Republican Chairman of the West Virginia Legislature’s Judiciary Committee introduced a resolution calling on the President to “expedite the entrance of Ukrainian refugees into the United States” and expressing that “the citizens of West Virginia are ready, willing and able to welcome hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to the State of West Virginia.”
Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld (R) agreed, emphasizing how valuable refugee contributions are to the state: “They would have so much to give, and we would have so much to gain from having them here.”
Indeed they did.
Volunteers across ten counties worked to welcome Ukrainians in search of safety, capitalizing on a unique opportunity to live their faith. For example, St. Joseph Parish in Martinsburg established a Ukrainian Ministry Committee following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—working alongside Catholic Charities to provide integration support to refugees and partnering with other local parishes on clothing and fundraising drives.
Today, these same Ukrainians are at risk of once again being forced from their homes; America only provided Ukrainians temporary safety, not long-term resettlement, through the Uniting for Ukraine program.
Ukrainians—and West Virginians—need a Refugee Program they can rely on in times of crisis, offering permanency to American allies and security for the future of democracies under threat.
Only a floor can provide the certainty that West Virginia’s Christian communities demand.
West Virginia’s Congressional Delegation
From calls for bipartisanship amidst crisis to calls for increased protections for persecuted Christians, West Virginia’s Congressional delegation is rife with opportunities to expand support for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and a resettlement minimum.
With tailored outreach, West Virginia can revive their Refugee Program—ensuring the state’s care workers, food processors, volunteers, and defenders of democracy can continue to find safe haven in the heart of Appalachia.
Senator Jim Justice (R)
Before Jim Justice was a U.S. Senator, he was West Virginia’s Governor—and a defender of resettlement.
In response to Trump’s 2019 Executive Order requiring state and local consent for resettlement, Governor Justice affirmed the success of West Virginia’s resettlement program.
He emphasized that refugees have “become productive citizens,” that all “refugees who come to West Virginia will have been vetted and approved…and be granted legal entry,” and that they are “welcomed into our West Virginia family.”
Though the recent tragic attack on two of West Virginia’s National Guard members has increased anti-immigrant sentiment, opportunities for engaging West Virginia’s Congressional delegation—and Senator Justice—remain.
The delegation’s resolution following November’s events, led by Justice, focuses solely on honoring the lives of those service members that were lost—and does not call for restrictions on immigration. Justice’s remarks on the Senate floor in the wake of November’s tragedy centered on a call for bipartisanship:
“America, please listen to me and listen now. What in the world’s happened to us?…From the standpoint of Congress are we dysfunction? You’re dadgum right, in a lot of ways. I haven’t been here very long, but I see absolutely the food fight going on all the time and the respect level almost non-existent. That’s bad.
We should absolutely respect one another and we should look at each other’s views and opinions and honor them. And we don’t. And vote after vote after vote after vote: 51-49. Not good. It’s not good, America. And it’s not a game…Let’s do something about it.”
While Justice has called for a review of SIV recipients—some of the most vetted immigrants in the Country, personally vouched for by multiple American service members—on Twitter and local news, Justice’s history as a supporter of refugees and recent call for bipartisanship suggest that long-term engagement with his office, sensitive to security concerns, may result in cultivation of a continued champion.
A Refugee Program that can respond to emergencies—offering the same dignity, certainty, and mental health resources available to all refugees—can ensure safety for all.
Senator Capito (R)
Senator Capito has been a champion for Ukrainian refugees, traveling to Poland to meet with those fleeing Russia’s invasion in 2022 and emphasizing West Virginia’s welcoming attitude:
“Even from a small state like West Virginia, we’ve received a lot of phone calls from people within our state who are interested in helping the Ukrainian people…I think we will welcome the Ukrainians with open arms and that’s the American way.”
She has also called for bipartisan immigration reform, calling for efforts to “work toward a balance of being a nation that celebrates legal immigration, recognizing the needs of those who claim asylum, while preventing the nefarious goals of cartels who want to smuggle people and drugs into our country.”
Advocates can share the role the Refugee Program plays in celebrating and facilitating legal immigration, providing lawful and secure humanitarian protections, and the need for a resettlement minimum with Capito—bridging her interest in bipartisan immigration reform with refugee resettlement.
As Chairwoman of the LHHS Subcommittee, Capito is well-positioned to consider funding to sustain resettlement agencies across the country—if provided the right reasons for doing so.
Representative Moore (R)
Congressman Moore, who represents West Virginia’s northeast House district, is a champion for the world’s persecuted Christians.
Moore recently joined the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) Christian Persecution Summit, echoing his July 2025 resolution’s calls for “the President to prioritize the protection of persecuted Christians in U.S. foreign policy” and “encourages the President to use all diplomatic tools available…to advance the protection of persecuted Christians worldwide.”
The collapse of the Refugee Program is a crisis for persecuted Christians.
In 2024, the U.S. resettled over 37,000 refugees from those countries listed as priority in Moore’s resolution. Last year, the U.S. resettled less than half as many—with resettlement zeroing out from those fleeing persecution in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Niger, and Turkmenistan.
This fiscal year (through Nov. 30th), only three refugees from outside of South Africa have been resettled to the United States; those refugees—all from Afghanistan—may have their status reviewed, and potentially, revoked.
America’s efforts to provide religious refuge to persecuted Christians is declining sharply.
Advocates should educate Moore on role the Refugee Program plays in providing religious refuge—and the role a floor would play in ensuring protections continue. A member of the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Moore can play a key role in ensuring Christians can continue to find refuge in the U.S.—no matter who is in the Oval Office.
Continuing a Tradition of Hospitality
When discussing the State Legislature’s resolution to welcoming Ukrainians, Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin (D) tied resettlement to West Virginia’s tradition of hospitality:
“West Virginia, in my experience, is the most hospitable place I have ever been. The alien, the immigrant, the stranger—we welcome with open arms…
We give you the shirt off our back. We welcome you to sit on the porch. We invite you to dinner. We give you a place to stay for the night. This is a place of hospitality, and that’s why I’m so proud to stand with my colleagues in support for this resolution for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who need us right now.”
West Virginia’s tradition of hospitality—of welcoming the stranger—cannot be preserved without a resettlement minimum.
Outreach to the state’s congressional delegation on the role resettlement plays in bipartisan efforts to fix our immigration system, supporting America’s allies in the fight for democracy, and offering religious refuge can build momentum for a minimum.
Similar outreach can build momentum in your state, too
Thanks for reading Save Resettlement.
Next week, resettlement at risk in Wisconsin.
In the meantime, we’d recommend reviewing recently released data on last year’s refugee admissions. We’ll be updating our website to reflect this data over the coming month as we prepare for the new year—stay tuned!
