The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation supports and stands in solidarity with our New American neighbors and the organizations committed to their well-being. Welcoming immigrants and refugees to our shores is fundamental to our national principles, to New Hampshire values and to this Foundation’s mission of building stronger communities.
As such, we are greatly concerned about President Trump’s executive order on immigrants and refugees. It is antithetical to American values, based on ideology instead of fact, inhumane, and dangerous to our nation and our communities. In the words of General Michael Hayden, a retired four-star general who served under Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama as Director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, the order “has probably made Americans less safe today than we were Friday morning.” Hayden and more than 100 former national security officials, Republicans and Democrats, have written a letter protesting the executive order. They wrote that it “jeopardizes tens of thousands of lives,” and “has caused a crisis right here in America and will do long-term damage to our national security.” And the United Nations reports that the most vulnerable children in the world come predominantly from countries named in the ban.
At the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, we work to make New Hampshire better for every single person here – whether their ancestors arrived as refugees on the Mayflower, or their families arrived as immigrants last week. We proudly support organizations working with immigrants and refugees. And we proudly award scholarships to New American students who have excelled, often despite the most harrowing circumstances.
Immigrants and refugees make overwhelmingly positive contributions to our communities and our economy and have throughout our state’s history – from the loggers and railroad workers and shoemakers of the past to the doctors, small-business owners and hospitality and high-tech workers of today.
New Hampshire is more diverse today than it was a few short years ago, and we are stronger and better for it. Our state is culturally richer and more vibrant, and is more attractive to stay, work and play in than ever before. Our newest neighbors have helped make it that way. We welcome them and celebrate them. Our economy needs them.
New Hampshire’s statewide community foundation will continue to work to make immigrants and refugees welcome in New Hampshire. Please consider supporting the following organizations that are among those leading this work, and join us in standing beside our newest neighbors during this difficult moment.
American Friends Service Committee – New Hampshire Office
Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire
Catholic Charities New Hampshire
Granite State Organizing Project
International Institute of New England
New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union or American Civil Liberties Union
Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success
Welcoming New Hampshire – a project of the New Hampshire Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees (Fiscal agent: the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition)
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