A social services organization that helped more than 100 refugees settle in Bangor is closing its local immigration services office after President Donald Trump barred new arrivals.
Catholic Charities Maine will close its Greater Bangor Refugee and Immigration Services office on June 30, the organization announced Friday.
The decision was made because the Trump administration suspended refugee resettlement and the organization lost federal funding, Catholic Charities Maine said in a statement. Additionally, the Bangor region has the smallest concentration of the agency’s refugee clients.
Charles Mugabe, director of migration for Catholic Charities Maine, said other refugee resettlement organizations across the country already have or will likely shutter due to the funding freeze and Trump’s restrictions.
Refugees are people who leave their country due to persecution or fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Catholic Charities has resettled refugees in the Portland area since 1975 and expanded to the Bangor area around 2022.
“Bangor as a community has been very receptive, welcoming and friendly,” Mugabe said. “It was a humbling experience to operate in a place that was as welcoming as Bangor.”
Catholic Charities Maine resettled about 100 refugees from 11 different counties in Bangor in fiscal year 2024 and was supposed to welcome 150 more until Trump canceled flights in January. The agency hasn’t received any new refugees since Jan. 13, it said.
“We hope that down the road things might change and resettlement might become a possibility again because there are families who were in the pipeline ready to travel and their flights were canceled last minute,” Mugabe said.
Some of the people who were ready to travel to Maine were reunification cases, where one parent got settled in the U.S. and was waiting for another parent and children to join them, Mugabe said.
Local organizations, such as the Maine MultiCultural Center in Brewer, will continue offering resources to the refugees who have already settled in the Bangor area. Mugabe estimated that fewer than 20 families will still need support after the agency has closed its Bangor office.
“The Greater Bangor community has been welcoming and supportive of refugees and it is because of this that we trust our clients who have resettled here will continue to thrive,” Stephen Letourneau, Catholic Charities Maine CEO, said in a statement. “I cannot thank our community partners enough for their support over these past 2.5 years.”
The nonprofit closing its local refugee and immigration services office will not impact any other programs that Catholic Charities offers at its Bangor-area location.
The organization’s refugee services offices in southern Maine will remain open and continue to offer legal assistance to Bangor-area refugees so they can apply for citizenship, green cards or family reunification, Mugabe said.