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Canopy NWA Discusses President’s Travel Ban At Town Hall Meeting

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — Canopy NWA is hosting a town hall meeting Thursday (Feb. 2) to help with the confusion around President Trump’s travel ban. Executiv...

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- Canopy NWA is hosting a town hall meeting Thursday (Feb. 2) to help with the confusion around President Trump’s travel ban.

Executive Director Emily Crane Linn said a refugee family was supposed to come to Northwest Arkansas from the Congo earlier this week.

“They were so close to the cutoff, they were close to coming. They waited 16 years and they were almost going to get their chance to star over here in the United States and now that chance has been postponed and we don’t know when they are going to be able to travel again,” Linn said.

She said the hardest part is not being able to communicate with these families.

“I wish there were a way I could reach out to them and say 'hey I just want you to know that we already love you, we have a whole community here that is going to keep waiting for you. We are going to keep fighting for you and we can’t wait for you to get here even if it takes a while,'” she said.

Holly Shacklett is a family co-sponsor with Canopy and said she has helped welcome the families and teach them everyday things.

“Through this experience we figured out how much we love doing this and now we truly care about what happens to especially to this family but to all the refugees,” Shacklett said.

Shacklett said before this experience she knew very little about refugees, but once she found out the vetting process and how long it took she said she felt there was no need to worry.

“The interaction I have had has been almost all fun and everybody seems so ready to just get on with the wonderful new chapter in their live and it’s just really exciting to be a part of that,” she said.

The town hall meeting is at 7 p.m. at Grace Church in Fayetteville.

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