Immigrants and refugees feel a target on their back as the 2024 election enters its final stretch. The Trump campaign has repeatedly promoted false claims, like Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio, while support for policies like mass deportations is at an all-time high.
Dr. Sofia Khan, the director of KC For Refugees, tells KCUR this rhetoric is taking a toll on her and her organization's clients.
"I'm just starting to get a little hopeless these days. I'm not a person who gets hopeless easily," she says.
Khan has hosted over 200 conversations across the Kansas City metro since 2016, and says they've made a difference in how residents view refugees. After hearing some initial suspicion, Khan says that now, "the requests are only, 'how can we help?'"
Despite this progress, Khan is "not at all" confident her organization could help fend off proposed mass deportations, which could target up to 11 million people.
In Khan's experience, anti-immigrant rhetoric is fueled by "a group of people who have not been really exposed to anybody other than who looks like them." Khan says fear of the unknown is normal, but "some politicians, for their own gain, are using those people's feelings."
"We're not going to stop fighting for what we believe," Khan says. "Never."
- Dr. Sofia Khan, KC For Refugees director
