(somber music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible through support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Luzerne Foundation, and Scranton Area Community Foundation.

(man speaking in foreign language) (dramatic music) - There's a lot of rhetoric that's really demonizing immigrants and refugees and like sort of broad brush of, "People are violent criminals," or "People are doing things that are gonna make you unsafe."

And I think that's really dangerous to do that kind of scapegoating.

- On day one, I will seal the border, I will stop the migrant invasion, and we will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.

(crowd cheering) - You know, obviously, we have to be careful.

We have to take care on who comes into the country and have policies that we have a right as a country to secure our borders and all of that.

That's very much consistent with Catholic social teaching.

So the right to migrate, but also the right for a country to have sovereign borders.

- Everyone in this area has a story of where their grandparents were from and when they came here and all of that.

So kind of reminding people that this isn't new.

(dramatic music) (somber music) - Right there.

- Yes.

- Do you need?

- Yes, I do.

Thank you very much.

(indistinct) - Finally, got served here.

Let's go.

- A refugee, I think the definition is a person that flees war from their country of origin, the country where they were born and ends up in a refugee camp, ends up in an urban center, in a foreign country, and spends a lot of time as a refugee there with no chance to go back to their country of origin.

- At the most basic level, it's that need for home, that need for safety, that need for security that every human being has.

And when that's a threat and when that's not able to be secured any longer, the need to find it elsewhere.

- We are the descendants of 40 million people who left other countries, other familiar scenes, to come here to the United States to build a new life.

- [Narrator] In 1892, Ellis Island officially opened its doors as the nation's busiest immigration station.

Over 12 million immigrants passed through, many escaping war, poverty and persecution.

Thousands, eventually headed inland, bounded for northeastern Pennsylvania.

There beneath the rolling hills lay one of America's richest sources of anthracite coal.

Mining began as early as the 1800s, but by the late 1800s, the industry exploded fueling factories, railroads, and homes.

Immigrants from Wales, and Germany, Poland, and Ireland and beyond build the mines trading hardship for opportunity and reshaping NEPA.

Located in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, this region lies within the Appalachian Mountains and borders New York and New Jersey.

Just a two hour drive to New York City and under three to Philadelphia, NEPA has become a convenient home base for accessing major metro areas.

Known for its natural beauty, including the Pocono Mountains and scenic state parks, affordable housing, a lower cost of living, and a growing arts and food scene.

NEPA has become home to people of all backgrounds, looking for both opportunity and a higher quality of life.

(group sings in foreign language) - It remind us of Ukraine and we are like together with all Ukrainians when we sing this song, especially.

This is the most popular Christmas song in all of the world.

- Yeah, we sing that every Christmas.

Yeah.

- It's our Christmas carol.

- We play in Carnegie Hall, We play in Severance Hall in... - [Woman] (indistinct) Theater as well.

- [Man] The biggest stage in the US.

- The most popular and beautiful places in the United States of America.

I was born in western part of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk, and (indistinct).

- Yeah, yeah.

Also was born in western part of Ukraine.

But when I came to the music academy and then years later, Katrina graduated the music academy of Kyiv.

So we met in Kyiv and our children was born in Kyiv.

It's whole life in big city.

And we love and our children feel at home.

Kyiv is a home for them.

(man speaking in foreign language) - I come from Democratic Republic of Congo, in Africa.

I was French teacher.

I begin to teach primary school.

A, B, C, D, huh?

My skills, my knowledge go to high school to teach French.

Primary school, two years, high school, four years.

After to teach French I go to university, I go back, I do hospital administrator.

(traffic buzzing) - This is my story.

But when the war started, I was in Kyiv, I was wake up 5:00 AM because of Russia start (indistinct).

- The war, I feel very sad.

We were having this conversation with my two friends.

We were walking, I remember a few days ago we heard a lot of helicopters flying over Kyiv and we said like, "We should be prepared for something."

But it happened.

Nobody believed us, but it happened.

- Russia pounded Kyiv overnight in one of its largest attacks on the Ukrainian capital since last summer.

Officials there say at least 12 people were killed, and around 90 others were injured.

- First of all, I never was some military, I never was in the army.

My civilian profession is an architect.

So I spent 15 months of my life in battle zone like a soldier.

In June, 2023, it was airstrike of Russian battle helicopter.

So I lost my hand, I lost my right eye.

My left eye was badly injured.

I can't see you now.

I see only your silhouette, you know.

- Different people came from this event and they think that most soldiers that are professional soldiers, I am a musician.

My whole life is in music.

But when we have a war, every body volunteer.

"Okay, I have to go."

You have this feeling from inside.

You have to go.

You have to.

I came to the military one day before the war start because I know.

In my unit was 70 soldiers, now it's only 12.

We fight one Ukraine to 10 soldiers, Russian soldiers right now.

And this is extremely difficult situation.

You know, I never seen movie who can describe at least 10% what's going on in the front line.

If you are in a big battle, you don't hear yourself.

You have like a fear that you don't know sometimes what is your name, what time of the day, you just don't know what's going on.

It's so difficult.

So difficult.

If I didn't go, my son will go.

I don't want my son see what I saw.

And any children in my country, in this country, what is this war about.

This is picture that you never can forget.

It comes to my mind, to my head all the time.

(man speaking in foreign language) - [Reporter] Once again, the Green March brought out thousands of people to demand that the authorities put an end to corruption and impunity.

- [Interpreter] This is a civic movement to demand that they give back the money they have stolen and that they implement policies for quality education, healthcare, housing, and jobs.

(man speaking in foreign language) - Follow me.

Only reason I leave to Congo is a war.

Is a war.

And I leave Congo I go to Tanzania with my family.

In Tanzania I lived 27 years in refugee camp.

Two camps.

Yeah, two camps.

One camp (speaking in foreign language) for 10 years, another camp (speaking in foreign language), 17 years.

Happy?

Happy?

No happy.

No happy.

Yeah, no happy.

- In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials say suspected Islamist rebels killed at least 38 people in an overnight attack in an eastern village.

It's the latest in a spike of violent clashes that began in February.

Since 1996 fighting in the region has led to about 6 million deaths.

- Well, because of your generosity, my unit had everything, helmet, everything a couple months later.

But the first couple days we did nothing.

You believe that I will be still alive.

I bury myself several times because I didn't know that I'll come back.

My colleague from university call me one night and says, "What do you do?"

I says, "I'm still working."

And what she says, "You better move because Putin never will stop."

- I didn't want to come to the United States of America.

And it's true.

And it was difficult to decide to do it.

- We've been to the States with Katrina many times, but bring our boys it was a big adventure, but it was a right decision to come to the safe place.

(man speaking in foreign language) - You know the war is to kill.

To kill.

First my security, all security of my family.

It was my only reason to leave.

- Everything we left in Ukraine, because you can have only one suitcase.

So you're leaving, you never know what is your next step.

(siren blaring) - Catholic Social Services has been resettling refugees for over 20 years now.

Trump's first administration, they had to pause that because there were not a lot of refugees that were coming in.

We then resumed our program, the refugee program in 2022.

We started as resettling 50 refugees, but then we ended up resettling in 96.

And then the following year we then resettled 143.

We have five programs for now.

So that is immigration program.

We also have a refugee and support services program, which is three of them an original one, one for Ukraine, and the other one's for Afghans.

And then we also had the reception and placement program.

But that was terminated.

- The refugee resettlement program has been around for a long time.

It was started by President Carter.

It's been a bipartisan program.

So it's one that has been broadly supported.

- Now, in the beginning it was a little complicated because what you saw was families had to somehow prove that they're insecure, they're not safe in the refugee camp.

- I leave my country, I come to USA, I am refugee.

All process.

Huh?

We go with all process to no refugee, immigrant.

Yeah?

No refugee, immigrant, no immigrant, national citizens.

If they told me, "You are refugee," no problem.

Yeah, I am refugee.

- We also have those that are paroled in the US and it's humanitarian parole.

Our numbers are higher there because then we have over like 200 every year that comes in and we assist them that way.

- And one of the pastor who visit us like 10 years ago, we asked "Father, can you be our sponsor for it?"

And he says, "No problem."

We had an answer like this.

And we realized this is God's providence, you know.

Some people looking for a sponsor for many months, for years.

- They are given two years humanitarian parole, which is a temporary status in the US.

They then would then decide whether they want to apply for asylum or they want to apply for TPS, which is a temporary protective status that will give them employment authorization and that way they can remain in the US.

- You know, we needed advice because we never had a experience how to do many document, how to be a part of a school.

How to go to some website, you have to register.

- So one of the requirement on resettlement is cultural orientation.

This is when we teach them about the laws of the United States, about transportation, about who they need to call if there is an emergency.

So the case managers provide that cultural orientation within that 90 days.

- Our big opportunity to help them is with information resources, activity opportunities and to connect them to the sources.

Because for example, we cannot work or we don't have experience working with immigration situation.

But we can explain for them like what are your rights, what can you do if something happen and you are on the street and somebody stop you and you are not prepared.

You need to read, you need to know.

(man speaking in foreign language) - Our organization is the one that says, we agree on this certain number.

We then have to inquire also with our state refugee coordinator as well, to let them know that Catholic Social Services has agreed to 150 refugees.

If the state coordinator thinks it's too much, they advise us, if they think we can take more they also advise us.

They have the numbers of how many people will come in on that year.

- 12 years and a half is a very long time to live in a life that I can only describe as that of poverty, misery and hopelessness.

And I have a lot of appreciation for those who are involved in the decision to process families like mine to come to the States.

The process itself, that took about four years and a half.

I know a lot of people think, "Well, people just find themselves in Scranton, find themselves in Baltimore, find themselves in Chicago."

But it's a very long process.

It's very complicated.

- Catholic Social Services is affiliated with USCCB, which is United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And so what what happens is that we submit an application every year notifying them of how many refugees we want to resettle for the next coming year.

When USCCB gets that application, then they work around that application, looking at the languages that we have in the office, the languages that we have in the community, and then all countries that we have listed in there.

Then that's how we get the refugees.

Catholic Social Services does accept US ties and non-US TS refugees.

It's usually easier for all agencies if there is a US tie involved, since they'll be going to somebody that they know.

A US tie can be a family or it could be a friend.

However, for those that do not have US tie in the United States, they do not have a choice on where to go.

That is picked by people who arrange their travels where they are also told that Catholic Social Services is resettling in the US ties.

So you're gonna go to Scranton.

- And the transition process is not 90 days, it's not a year.

Depending on a family, it may take up to 10 years down the road.

That has been my experience because every day as I'm helping our families here, all I see is things from 2016 repeating themselves in 2025.

It doesn't make me happy.

The original premise was, when we get to the US, life is gonna get better.

- Pass on, I wanna make sure you understand what we're doing here, okay?

If you look at the top of your dialogue.

- [Group] Yeah.

- "You'll see, read the dialogue with your partner.

Circle all adjective."

- "Adjective."

- [Man] Beautiful is the adjective of this.

- I saw some beautiful houses on my walk today.

- [Group] I saw some beautiful houses on my walk today.

- So as an agency, I would say United Neighborhood Centers has been around for more than a hundred years.

We have five programmatic departments.

We kind of assess what other needs they might have, whether that's something we can help with here as far as English language classes, citizenship, really any type of services.

- All of our classes are open enrollment.

So students can start, if they came in for an intake and assessment today, they could start class immediately.

We have in-person classes, virtual classes, like everything from pre-beginner, like a pre-literacy.

The individual may not be able to read or write in their first language.

So they're learning all of the phonics and everything right from like the basics, the alphabet and all of that.

Everything up into advanced level, like they would possibly test out of the program and then move on to either getting their GED or furthering their education here in the United States.

- This is A.

- A. I.

- Aye Aye, aye.

- Aye Aye, aye.

(group laughing) Can I say Edwin is beautiful?

- [Man] Yes.

Yes.

(group laughing) - What would I say?

Edwin is... Handsome.

Good.

- Handsome.

- These students, I mean, you saw them today.

They're wonderful.

They have great personalities, they have great potential.

They come from families that are vibrant and amazing.

They come from backgrounds and work experiences that could really bless our community.

And I feel like these English classes give them the tools to adapt well here.

- Hi Sam.

Do you like to live in Scranton?

- Yes, I do.

It's quite (indistinct).

What do you think of it?

- So I ran around telling friends, "Hey, I'm going to Scranton, Pennsylvania."

And people are like, "Wow, you're saying it with swag, it must be very good place."

(laughs) And I was like, "Yes, I might say it nicely, but I don't know what the place is, how it looks like."

So I tried to google some pictures and some nice pictures pop up.

But remember, I don't know, I have nothing to do with Scranton.

I don't know what the city's all about.

So I have multiple questions and I'm trying to ask myself how would life be?

- And of course when we arrive here, there was no siren or drones, anything.

Quiet and peaceful and feel secure.

- We are safe here.

We are safe.

We have a great security.

No trouble.

No trouble.

(man speaking in foreign language) - You have a good people, you have a great place to stay.

But you cannot replace your hometown, your home.

It's difficult for most people who... A lot of people who came here from different countries, they have the same feeling for couple of years at least.

(man speaking in foreign language) - It's a problem that you don't have this peace inside you.

You don't have this feeling of security.

You feel exhausted and you feel anxiety inside yourself because this territory is not yours.

(man speaking in foreign language) - Arriving here was a change in almost everything because you quickly realize that you will not know who your neighbors are.

Everyone is locked in buildings.

Somehow that gave us a feeling of people not being friendly.

But we came to realize that it's a country where people are so much focused on money and how to build their wealth and get better.

There's a lot of competition on getting better.

We quickly learned that and when we began working, we ourselves became part of that.

(man speaking in foreign language) - Cold, cold.

Cold, cold.

It's cold.

- Well, we're still learning, still learning something new, something different.

- There's a lot of concern in the community that clients come in with and I think most of it, number one is language.

That language barrier.

One of it is seeking resources.

They don't know where to go to find any resources.

Employment is kind of also coupled into that language barrier as well as to most companies are only hiring those that are speaking Spanish and English.

And so it's been a struggle.

- I arrived here, no talk any word English.

My first language is French, my second language is English.

- We have 115 families now that live in the city.

And a lot of these do not speak English and they're not able to easily obtain driving documentation, for example, they're not able to make medical appointments by themselves.

They cannot renew benefits on their own.

They cannot apply for adjustment of immigration status on their own.

They cannot go to the courthouse if they have a hearing on their own.

There is need for someone else to jump in.

- Until now we are okay but every day we are listening about different organization that help us that they're closing or maybe they're gonna cut resources.

And to help the people in the process and to have information about how to follow internal immigration, how to act.

Here in Hazleton, we don't have a lot of resources.

- We really, we had a more diverse case managers, I think together we spoke 21 languages.

And so that has been cut off into half.

We had to start utilizing a translator system now, which is not more friendly than just talking to somebody with their own language.

But we are doing our best to make sure that language barrier is not something that will stop us from helping clients.

- What's happening is, as we speak, the president is saying, well he has to cut down on the number of refugees coming to the States by suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program.

But I think, I have to be nice here.

It's like cutting the tail of a snake and leaving the head, which literally has the fangs and the poison to kill.

Can we try to work on the vetting process itself?

"No, no, no.

We don't want these people."

Some is out of racism, some is thinking some people are better than others.

Some think, "Well, if we bring all these people here, how can we feed them?"

- There is a misconception, misunderstanding that we came here just for the benefits of this country.

We are looking to a better opportunity to raise a family, to be better in a safe country with the freedom, with the respect and honesty.

- So a lot of people are not aware on how before the refugee comes in, they are vented heavily by the government.

A lot of people also are not aware that coming in as a refugee, that is a status, that is a legal status that would then lead them after one year to become a legal permanent resident and then apply for the citizenship after five years.

- So I think that very concretely, people think that when you come as a refugee through refugee resettlement, that you're sort of given a lot more financial assistance than you really are.

But a lot of that is already augmented by volunteers and just sort of contributions from the area and within 90 days people have to be working and someone in the home to be able to then support moving forward.

And refugees also have to pay back even the flight that they take from wherever they're coming from.

- For three months we have $400.

$400 for all my family, eh.

We have food, food cards, food, eh?

We go to shop, we buy food, government give me social security card, ID, yeah.

Government give me medical card, insurance, yeah, for one year.

After to go to work.

(laughs) Yeah.

- They cut it off.

Yeah.

- Some people egoistic, how do you say?

Egoism.

So proud them they selves, they love only themself... - Themself, Mm-hm.

But not people.

And people need help.

- I try not to cry.

I was like, "I'm not gonna cry during this," but I try not to.

- [Interviewer] What's making you cry?

- Well, that question.

- I mean I think it's something that we see a lot is we're working with individuals that are coming here because they, again, they trust us.

They're not really sure how to navigate the complex systems that exist here.

And I think it's really easy for people to say like, "Why don't you just learn English?

Why don't you just figure it out?"

Where there's so many systems that myself I struggle to navigate or anyone who's lived here a long time.

And that the reality is it's not that easy and people they're here and they're doing everything that they can.

- Now, what is your objection?

- In this country there are great many races.

It is impossible, unwise and unnecessary for each race to maintain its own language and identity.

The adopted country is United States and adopted language is English.

- It's important to keep your language, to keep your culture.

But unfortunately the first generation we are bilingual English and Spanish.

The second generation of Latino, they are more English speaking than Spanish speaking.

The third generation, we will be losing the Spanish language.

- Exactly.

Absolutely.

- [Reporter] I suppose we hear from the respondent husband.

- Mr.

Alexander, member of the board.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm equally at home with a number of languages including Chinese and English.

I resent any suggestion that this culture and this language should be relegated into the ash pan or out of the window.

- [Man] We have to do the more effort than we can to keep our culture alive.

(man speaking in foreign language) - Now I talk small English.

I go to bank, hospital and no translator.

- It can be a population that kind of arrives here and it can take a really long time for students like mine, people like my students to develop a friendship with an American or to feel welcomed by an American.

And so it's an honor for me to be in a role where I get to do that every day and really help them feel welcome into this community and into our country.

- We get US citizen clients that don't understand why we are helping refugees.

This is where we get the opportunity to educate.

- I think a lot of what we do with our partners is capacity building.

So you know, really communicating to understand what are the gaps in services.

They're saying some of the work just, it takes a lot of time.

So we wanna make sure that we're able to give the families the time and attention that they are deserving of.

So I think that's where those partnerships really help out is being to kind of rely on each other and learn from each other's experiences and best practices.

- 'Cause what we do is with our heart, because we are part of this organization, because we were part of the people that came to this town.

We don't know nothing, the language, people and we need education, support.

And that is all (indistinct) integration project.

- It's really important for us to take matters in our own hands.

'Cause even with the decisions that are coming from Washington DC, the president of suspending the refugee resettlement program, cutting funding for nonprofits, we are low budget here.

You know, I don't get paid for this.

I leave my wife and the children at home and I come here just to serve people and whether there is funding from the federal government or not, we'll still do work.

We will help our families, you know.

- So I think there's a lot that's like, they're common themes, but I think refugees have a lot to teach us about home and just our sort of our common human humanity.

- They contribute to the fabric of the community that we live in and the diversity.

And I think that we're really fortunate to have a diverse community because we get to experience the things that are unique to them.

And it changes the future of what our community looks like.

- But the biggest contribution is the economy.

People are contributing this economy.

They're working, paying taxes, they're investing, they're buying property, but they're also serving in the military.

They're serving in medical fields and so on and so forth.

There is always a contribution when a new member joins the family.

- [Man] As always, be safe, wear your PPE properly.

Everybody in the room, make sure you're fully covered, there's no outside clothing showing underneath you too.

Last day of the week, let's get this done and enjoy our weekend, everybody.

All right?

- I am lamination technician, means to take one glass below another glass above, I laminate, between I pour plastics.

If I laminate it become one glass.

- I think of all the programs to halt or to stop in relation to welcoming immigrants and refugees or welcoming people who are in this journey of migration, it feels very counterproductive.

It feels very much not aligned with the values of the United States and with community values.

I think that just reminding oneself about how you can always be in a situation where you might have to leave home.

We see things like wildfires now in California, climate change, obviously militarized conflict, ethnic and religious persecution.

There's so many reasons for why we have this global refugee crisis, but to just push it aside and think, "It's not gonna be me and so then I need to protect what I have," I think that's kind of a limited viewpoint.

- And I think the diplomatic and democracy have to work hard.

You know, it have to be big lessons for the rest of the world because people who've never experienced this, they don't know how it's dangerous.

How this is painful.

- All individual eh, say no, no for the war.

We are here to avoid the war.

- We're also a very wealthy country.

We're a very, very wealthy country.

So I think, we do a living wage study at the university and there's a lot of wealth inequality.

- We did not come here for handouts.

That has to be very clear.

But again, we cannot somehow detach ourselves from public assistance if we are not transitioning.

And that comes with helping ourselves be better.

But I think to fix that issue, why people have a problem with people like myself, refugees and immigrants, it's because they have no time to sit down and hear our stories and get to understand what the root cause of these conflicts are.

If people find time to do that, I don't think in this country there'll be any opposition to refugees and immigrants coming here, legally.

Because I, myself, as a refugee, I came to this country through a legal process.

- I think we really reduce ourselves in a way as humans and as Americans if we think we have nothing more to give and nothing more to offer.

(man speaking in foreign language) - And we never say no.

If the person ask something, we don't have information, we gonna make the necessary phone calls to find out the information that they need or to find out that the person that is gonna to have the real or the information that is accurate for them.

- All of our programs have workforce components.

So regardless of what level a student is they're coming in to our programs, they're learning all of the skills you would expect.

Reading, writing, listening.

We have coaches and case managers that also go into our classes and sort of talk about what are the high priority occupations in our area.

And one of the things I think about our organization is we're very fortunate to have the volunteers that we do.

Many of our classes are run by volunteers.

So we are lucky to be able to serve more than 600 people every year because there are people that are out there and that care about everyone here and they care about helping people achieve those dreams that they have.

And I just think it's really important to remember that anyone who's here is deserving of safety and family and connection and community.

- I think Scranton is welcoming.

I am new in Scranton.

I came here in 2022 and so I am amazed on how there is a lot of support for the refugees.

I am amazed on how different organization come together to make sure that everybody is welcomed and they have the resources that they need.

- It is my first city when I come here and I don't want to move.

Yeah, I don't want to move because I have now many friends, eh, who help me to advise my life, to give me the way, the way what to do with my life.

- Sometimes your community is more close than your family somewhere, and this is great.

We have a very good people here who comes and... - So kind and so gentle, so just deep and big hearts and just they would like to help us with something, with what you need, they would like to help.

And so we feel like a family here, like a spiritual family.

- It's part of our mission that open arms for everybody that needs a help here.

- [Woman] Hm-hmm.

- You need food, you have here, you need education, we gonna help you.

You need a sport, we have a basketball court.

It doesn't matter if they don't like us, but we are here for everybody.

That is our mission.

- And our partnership with different places bring us the opportunity to continue with our mission.

(man speaking in foreign language) - We're always just welcoming to the clients and the individuals that come through our door.

So just, even if that is pulling out your phone and using Google Translate or something like that, we find a way and it's just making sure they feel comfortable and that you're listening to what they have to say.

- Yeah, I feel here more comfortable.

It looks kind of similar to my country so I can feel, even if I alone, I can feel this energy of my country.

You have a lot of people here from Ukrainian, native Ukrainians, American Ukrainians from United States.

So it creates an aura and gives you like more inspiration to speak to them.

- People in small cities, more kind.

I experienced this, this small city, small churches, people always ready to help and this make a difference.

- I'm an immigrant myself from Zimbabwe, so I've been through the immigration and I know how hard it is and so I wanted to help other families that way.

Families are kept together and not separated.

- It's really important to understand that everybody can do something.

You can pray, you can help to buy (indistinct) and to even here in the United States, you can send to the army or you can help some poor people or some children.

You always can do something if you want.

It helps me to feel human.

- Before, (sighs) if I go to USA, I think my life will be changed.

I come to USA forever.

My life, my death, eh, in USA.

To die safely.

(laughs) Yeah?

Makes sense?

- Yes.

Yeah.

To die safely.

- When you put that in the first place in the life, everything will be in their own places and should be in right places.

It's like rules, like spiritual rules and we would like to follow those rules, but we know that this gave us power, gave us peace and real peace.

(man speaking in foreign language) (child speaking in foreign language) (man speaks in foreign language) - If the elders stop telling us stories, we'll forget where we came from.

We'll forget ourselves.

So to me, I think it's a beautiful thing to continue telling people that story and it's just a way to remind them.

'Cause if I stop, then who?

- I think the more organizations that step forward and say like, "This is important to us, these are our community members," I think it's important to just keep doing the work.

Especially now.

- The reason why this cause is so important to me and why I'm so happy to see so many of you attend here in solidarity is because I myself, I'm an immigrant, so is everybody else in my family.

- We know that our communities are stronger, not weaker, when we welcome people, that freedom means being able to raise your family without fear of being torn apart.

- I came to this country five years ago and I saw the hostility with which we're treated.

- Your dreams, your work, your lives, they are all part of the American story.

- I'm very passionate when we talk about (indistinct).

When we talk about the community, when we're talking about the future, that we have to build as a new immigrant and the first immigrant Latino, then we have to be the example.

- Hm-hmm.

(speaking in foreign language) - Now, I rent, eh?

My hope is to have, to buy, not to buy, to have a house, proper house for me, yeah?

To have all process, to have citizenship.

- There is one recipe if I can say like this, just make this world better.

Unity, relationship, friendship.

This is a future.

- The future is to keep doing what we are doing, helping more refugees as much as we can.

Yeah.

Keep this door open.

- As I look around, I see families from Congo, Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and many other corners of the world.

- Catholic Social Services and University of Scranton, we co-chair the World Refugee Day.

- Probably been like seven or eight years that it's been going on and it's an annual, it's a worldwide celebration, the day in June.

We wanted to use that as a way to raise awareness, to let people know that these communities are here to be able to come out and support, and have solidarity.

And then for the communities themselves to be able to come together in friendship, in solidarity.

- I wanna say welcome and I am honored to be here today to celebrate this day with you.

- But it's also a day for us to reflect upon the reality of where we find ourselves these days.

- We know that there are over 122 million people who are displaced around the world, having been forced to flee their homes.

And yet currently the doors of the United States are almost entirely closed to newly arriving refugees.

- We will help you protect your rights and we will do what we can to ensure your wellbeing.

We owe that to you.

- You bring so much good things to our city.

You bring your culture, you bring your food, you bring your music, and you bring your tradition.

You make Scranton more beautiful.

(upbeat music) (woman singing in foreign language) (upbeat music) (woman singing in foreign language) (mellow music) (man singing in foreign language) - Therefore, I, Josh Shapiro, governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do hereby proclaim June, 2025 to be Immigrant Heritage Month and June 20th, 2025 to be World Refugee Day.

- Sunshine.

- Yeah.

(woman sings in foreign language) (group clapping) - They've went through the struggle of moving from the country to living in a resettlement camp.

And if we can think about it for a second, like the resilience of coming here and being the part of the community and still have happy face in their faces and still making friends, I think that resilience has to be celebrated.

- Immigrants and refugees strengthen this country and it's been a part of our national identity for a long time.

It makes this a vibrant community.

- (indistinct) To deny refugee is to deny our shared humanity.

Tonight, let us commit ourselves to the values that make us human, love, kindness and justice.

(man speaking in foreign language) (woman speaking in foreign language) (man speaking in foreign language) (swelling music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible through support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Luzerne Foundation and Scranton Area Community Foundation.