Business concerns grow as Trump halts new refugee admissions

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(31 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago- 31 January 2025
1. Various interior of Eli's Cheesecake Company store
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Marc Schulman, President of Eli's Cheesecake Company:
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"So at Elis, about 40% of our workforce came to Elis as refugees or, you know, new Americans, immigrants. And it dates back over 30 years working with RefugeeOne. And many of our leaders at Eli's came to us as refugees."
3. Various of employees helping customers
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Marc Schulman, President of Eli's Cheesecake Company:
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"Sometimes it's taken years to get the paperwork done, to have the vetting done. So you're getting a person who definitely has been investigated in the country they're leaving and our concern is that our concern is that, you know, in dealing with issues at the border that need to be addressed, that we don't take steps that really hurt business and hurt our communities."
5. Customer shopping at Eli's Cheesecake Company
6. Eli's Cheesecake Company logo
7. Eli's Cheesecake
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Elias Kasongo, vice president of purchasing at Eli's Cheesecake Company:
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"I was in the refugee camp in Zambia for four years and with no hope of returning home. I was resettled in America, especially here in Chicago in 1994 and August of 1994, I joined Eli and I've been working here since then."
9. Employees helping customer
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Elias Kasongo, Vice president of Purchasing at Eli's Cheesecake Company:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"For many, many, many years, at least from my experience, refugee was not a political problem. But like anything else, things change. Nobody chooses to just go to be a refugee if everything was okay. You know, people run from wherever they're coming from for a reason. And if they qualify, I mean, qualification is the key over here."
11. Picture of employee working at the Eli's Cheesecake factory
12. Picture of Marc Schulman with his father and founder of Eli's Cheesecake Company, Eli Schulman
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Marc Schulman, President of Eli's Cheesecake Company:
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"Immigration has always been important. As I said, you know, my grandparents came to Chicago, you know, in 1906. So look at what we've been able to do over those hundred years."
14. Interior of Eli's Cheesecake Company store
15. Eli's Cheesecake
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Marc Schulman, President of Eli's Cheesecake Company:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"I think, you know, organizations like RefugeeOne worry about their funding. It doesn't affect us in the short term. However, our biggest concern and issue is the ability of our people to be here, to stay here."
17. Employee helping customer
18. Employees working behind the counter
STORYLINE:
Refugees who had been approved to come to the United States before a deadline next week suspending America’s refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration.

Thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution and had gone through a sometimes years long vetting process to start new lives in America are now stranded at various locations worldwide. That includes more than 1,600 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort, as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel.

President Donald Trump paused the program this week as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration.




AP Video shot by Melissa Winder

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