Michigan prepares for Syrian refugees

By ROHITHA EDARA
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan nonprofit organizations are preparing for an influx of Syrian refugees after the U.S. Senate rejected a bill that would stop them from entering the country. “We are expecting a new wave of refugees, especially that of Syrians,” said Ken Fouty, community outreach coordinator at Lutheran Social Services of Michigan based in Detroit. “We anticipate that it will happen in the summer.”
About 100 Syrian refugees were resettled by his organization in 2015. It is prepared to take about 300 more in response to the refugee crisis in Syria, he said. Michigan took in 180 refugees in total in 2015, said Erica Quealy, marketing specialist at  the  Department of Health and Human Services.