FINDLAY, OH (WLIO) - Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn presented to Findlay City Council her administration's plans to address the recent increase in immigration populations.
The plans of the Immigration Task Force were recently created as an influx of Haitians immigrated to Findlay. The philosophy behind Muryn's Immigration Task Force is to enhance current social service networks to satisfy the needs of a growing immigration population while embracing the positive contributions immigrants make to the community and advocating federal immigration reform.
Mayor Muryn also talked with Your Hometown Stations about current immigration population numbers and key goals her administration would like to accomplish.
"We probably have about 1,000 in our community at this point. The added challenge is the language barrier, and so, we're really figuring out how do we help them learn English quickly as well as then help direct them to community resources to find more stable housing to make sure that they're getting jobs, and so, that's really been our goals. And then, helping, especially kids, to integrate into our school systems, so it's really just how do we make sure that we adjust our existing systems to accommodate non-English speakers and newcomers to our community," stated Mayor Christina Muryn, City of Findlay.
Residents have also expressed concerns regarding the recent increase in immigration, and Mayor Muryn addressed questions about whether Findlay is a sanctuary city.
"So I certainly understand residents having concerns with a new population, especially given the federal climate. You know, it is really frustrating that we don't have good border security and good immigration policies, but the majority of folks that we're seeing come to our community are here legally. They are here on work visas or are asylum seekers or refugees. We have some people that have been in the United States for years and have been living in just different parts of the country—again, legally. But the city of Findlay is not a sanctuary city. We are not inviting people in; we are not bussing them here; we are upholding the law," added Muryn.
Mayor Muryn says the focus now is to help immigrants become proficient in English.
