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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

As More Syrian Refugees Arrive, CT is Ready to Help

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Thursday, October 22, 2015   

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The U.S will admit 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year, more than five times the number admitted in the past 12 months, but those who help resettle displaced immigrants say more could be done.

About four million Syrians have fled their war-torn country and hundreds of thousands are settling in Europe. Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, in New Haven, calls the target for U.S. admissions "an embarrassment."

"We have a national network of refugee resettlement agencies that could take as many as 200,000 refugees in one year," says George.

In 1980, the U.S. admitted 200,000 refugees from Southeast Asia.

So far, IRIS has resettled five Syrian families and another service in Hartford has resettled five more. George says the Syrians are just like refugees arriving from other countries.

"They're all eager to get jobs. They're learning English as quickly as they can," he says. "Like most refugees, Syrians came here for the future of their children so they want their children to do well in school."

IRIS claims a 70 percent success rate in helping those they serve to be self sufficient within five months of arrival.

Currently about 500 refugees a year from all nations resettle in the state, a number George believes could be doubled.

"We can do it because we have three, possibly four refugee resettlement agencies, and my phone is ringing off the hook with offers of support from community groups across the state," he says.

As the number of Syrian refugees increases, George says the message to the federal government from Connecticut is, "Please send us more."





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