NC religious group targeted by Elon Musk forced to stop refugee resettlement program
A North Carolina faith-based group targeted Sunday by tech billionaire Elon Musk says the federal government halted its refugee settlement program.
Lutheran Services Carolinas, which provides senior living, child care, mental health care and immigrant services throughout North and South Carolina, said in a statement its “resettlement of legal refugees has been stopped by the federal government.” The group’s New Americans Program worked with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and nonprofit Global Refuge to help refugees in Raleigh, Asheville, Salisbury and multiple South Carolina cities access housing, health care, education and jobs.
The group said Monday the shutdown began last week under an executive order pausing refugee resettlement.
The order and social media post come as Musk targets federal funding for programs related to immigration and foreign aid in his capacity leading the Trump administration’s new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Musk shared a social media post from former Trump administration official Mike Flynn on Sunday that said the “use of ‘religion’ as a money laundering operation must end” and included a list of federal grants to multiple groups associated with the Lutheran denomination, including Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas. The group merged with Lutheran Services for the Aging to form Lutheran Services Carolinas in 2011.
“The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments,” Musk wrote on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Lutheran Services Carolinas leadership said the “stop-work order” halts “the longstanding, bipartisan-supported resettlement of legal refugees.” The group has welcomed almost 400 refugees to North and South Carolina since October alone.
“The resettlement of legal refugees through LSC’s New Americans Program is consistent with our biblical foundation and American values,” President and CEO Ted W. Goins, Jr said in a statement. “As Scripture reminds us in Matthew 25:35, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ Our work is rooted in this call to hospitality and care.”
The group and the North Carolina Lutheran Church called on local, state and federal leaders “to urge the White House and Congress to reinstate these vital services.”
“Now more than ever in these uncertain and divided times, we as the NC Synod and I as bishop continue to support Lutheran Services Carolinas and Global Refuge in the holy work of welcoming the stranger, helping resettle refugees vetted and entrusted to our care by the U.S. government, with or without the government’s financial assistance,” North Carolina Synod Bishop Tim Smith said in a statement.
Leadership of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, also slammed Musk’s comments and said the group and its partners help “legally admitted refugees and immigrants” fleeing violence and persecution.
“Global Refuge condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the false accusations being lodged against our humanitarian work,” President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said in a statement.
The Trump administration last week froze nearly all foreign assistance from the U.S., with exceptions only made for emergency food programs, some humanitarian programs providing medical care and military aid to Israel and Egypt, the Associated Press reported.
The administration also laid off thousands of employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers humanitarian aid programs around the world. Congressional Democrats and USAID employees were denied entry Monday to the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters after Musk said the president agreed with him to shut down USAID, according to the AP.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 3:21 PM.
CORRECTION: Lutheran Services Carolinas received an order to stop its refugee resettlement program before tech billionaire Elon Musk’s post on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. A previous version of this story was incorrect.
