When he founded the Refugee Dream Center in 2015, Dr. Omar Bah had no way of foretelling the policies that Donald Trump in his second presidency would enact. He only wanted to help refugees and immigrants like himself who needed help in their new home, Rhode Island.
A torture survivor, former journalist, and refugee from The Gambia, Bah possessed a keen understanding of the needs of people who like him had moved to America. The center, which he still leads, put out the welcome mat – and thousands of women, men and children from around the globe have since crossed it.
Today, ten months into the second Trump presidency, Bah told Ocean State Stories, center staff and clients experience “a combination of factors of fear. Staff sometimes are afraid, as are the community members, the clients that we serve. They were especially afraid when the new policies started but now people are freeing up a little bit and have started coming again.”
Still, what Bah described as “the deluge of information,” some true and some not, from social media and other sources, has placed staff in a predicament, he asserted.
“Sometimes we are not sure what to tell people,” he said. “Then there are ICE raids happening across the country, in our city, in Providence, so people are afraid. Sometimes they see a police officer and they think it’s ICE; they don’t know the difference. So that has created so much anxiety and fear within the refugee, immigrant and asylum-seeker population.”
Bah said that one of the center’s community members recently was arrested by ICE.
Leaders of other centers serving these populations told Ocean State Stories that they, too, are continuing their work, despite the political climate.
“The Center for Southeast Asians (CSEA) continues to provide vital services to Rhode Island’s immigrant and refugee communities, as we have for nearly four decades,” Channavy Chhay, Executive Director of CSEA said in a statement. “Our focus remains on helping individuals and families live safely and productively through programs in employment, education, health, and civic engagement.
“In recent months, some community members have expressed increased anxiety about their immigration status and have become more cautious about their visibility in public spaces or interactions with government agencies. We have also observed that a few members of our community have delayed travel abroad out of concern about being able to return, even though they have legal status in the U.S.”
Chhay continued: “Despite these understandable worries, our programs remain fully active. While attendance in some classes, such as English language instruction, has dipped slightly, overall participation across our services remains steady. Our staff continue to remind all clients of the importance of following the law and pursuing their goals with confidence.
“CSEA is committed to maintaining a safe, welcoming environment for everyone we serve. We are not aware of any enforcement actions directly targeting our clients, and we continue to operate all programs – including job training, case management, assistance to victims of crime, and tax preparation for qualifying individuals – without disruption. Our mission remains to help every member of our community build stability, opportunity, and belonging.”
Read the rest of the article here. Copyright © 2025 Salve Regina University. Originally published by OceanStateStories.org.
Editorial notes:
— Miller met Bah while reporting for the award-winning 2015 Providence Journal series “Race in Rhode Island” and wrote about him and the center many times after until he left the paper in 2022. https://www.facebook.com/raceinri/
— Chhay is a member of the Ocean State Stories Advisory Board.
