State refugee coordinator outlines surge in arrivals, requests federal-authority-based grants to scale services

State refugee coordinator Holly Triska Dolly told the House Appropriations Committee’s Human Resources Division that refugee arrivals in North Dakota have increased sharply and that state-administered federal grants must scale to meet workforce and community-integration needs.

Dolly said the office’s mission "is to create community collaborations that strengthen and guide newcomers as they become welcomed neighbors and valued contributors to the economy." She explained the federal-state structure: the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) funds initial resettlement and a separate federal allotment supports the state Office of Refugee Services, which emphasizes long-term employment, English-language learning and community integration.

Arrivals and funding: Dolly provided arrival counts the office is using for budgeting: 219 refugee-eligible arrivals in federal fiscal year 2022, 421 in 2023 and 804 in 2024. She said the office is projecting roughly 1,100 arrivals in the coming year and that federal funding for community grants is formula-driven with a two-year lookback on arrivals; the office therefore expects grant authority to increase in line with arrivals. The…