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Julianna Larsen is the Director of the Arizona Refugee Center. On this episode of Tell Me More, she and host David Scott discuss the realities facing refugee and immigrant families in Arizona right now: family separations, unmet commitments to Afghan allies who served alongside U.S. troops, detention conditions, and the gap between how immigration policy is discussed and how it is actually lived. Julianna has spent more than a decade working directly with displaced families in the East Valley. She shares how a Christmas project in a Mesa trailer park eighteen years ago changed how she sees her own community, and why she believes meeting someone face to face does more to change a mind than any argument. Topics covered:

• Operation Allies Welcome and the Afghan resettlement community in Arizona
• Why families of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders have not been reunited
• The difference between refugee, asylee, and undocumented status, and why the distinction matters
• What detention and deportation proceedings actually look like on the ground
• The South African refugee exception and how it compares to the broader resettlement process
• Workforce contributions of refugee and immigrant communities in Arizona
• How to get involved with the Arizona Refugee Center

This is about curiosity, and leading with questions instead of conclusions. Learn more or get involved with the Arizona Refugee Center: https://azrefugeecenter.org/