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(The Center Square) – Oklahoma received the highest number of Afghan refugees per capita after the fall of Kabul in 2021 and third highest overall behind California and Texas, according to an interim study on the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program in Oklahoma.
Lawmakers on the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee heard reports Tuesday from the various organizations assisting Afghans upon arriving at the state.
Oklahoma received over 1,800 new Afghan residents. The U.S. resettled approximately 72,000 Afghans who were said to have been U.S. allies, according to Veronica Laizure, deputy director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
A total of $14.7 million went toward arriving Afghans who were assisted by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, according to Executive Director Patrick Raglow.
Their organization received 13% of its revenue from local and federal government sources in fiscal year 2020-2021 and 31% from its annual appeal, according to the Catholic Charities budgetary report. Five percent of their funding that year was from public support. The organization received 8% of its funding from the Paycheck Protection Program.
Of the $8.5 million disbursed, $5.6 million covered housing Afghans in hotels, and another approximately $443,000 was spent in reimbursements, Raglow said.
Catholic Charities is a statewide resettlement agency. The more than 1,800 Afghans who came to live in Oklahoma in 2021 was the highest number in the organization’s history. From 2017 to 2022, the agency received 309 refugees, averaging 62 per year, according to Raglow.
The Afghans who relocated to the U.S. after Kabul came under “Humanitarian Parole” status, a temporary status that does not “confer the benefits and status that a refugee might typically have,” Laizure said. That means that some programs, like the Refugee Cash Assistance Program, may not have been available to them.
However, Congress did approve access to SNAP and Medicaid benefits. They were also given employment authorization documents, according to Raglow.
Many also qualified for the Emergency Rental Assistance Programs approved through the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan.
“They were here, they were unhoused, and there was a risk of community spread of COVID, which is why the funds were there,” Raglow said.
The housing assistance provided covered 5,000 months of rent, or 485 years, according to the executive director.
Additionally, the Catholic Charities’ reception and placement program provides $1,225 in cash per family, said Raglow.
“We said yes to this work with the coordination of our state refugee coordinator and the governor’s office to go big and go bold and welcome as many as we could,” Raglow said.
This article First appeared in the center square
