Welcome to Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area's (LSSNCA) newsroom. LSSNCA, a human services and immigration relief and refugee welcome agency throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the Washington D.C. metro area serves those on their immigration journey. Read how we're working together to amplify voices of refugees and asylum-seekers, create loving and responsible foster homes for unaccompanied children and refugee minors, advocate for new neighbors, and work torward creating a more just, welcoming, and thriving community.
For press inquiries, please email media@lssnca.org.
This weekly blog provides updates on immigration policy changes, legal rulings, and how to help our neighbors.
LSSNCA statement on the impact of the budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 1), which was signed into law on July 4, 2025.
This year, Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA) celebrated World Refugee Day— annually honored on June 20—through storytelling, centering the voices and experiences of community members who have lived through displacement and resettlement. We hosted two panels in partnership with St. John’s Norwood Episcopal Church in Maryland and the McLean Islamic Center in Virginia.
This weekly blog provides updates on immigration policy changes, legal rulings, and how to help our neighbors.
Read our newsletter to stay connected and involved with LSSNCA.
This weekly blog provides updates on immigration policy changes, legal rulings, and how to help our neighbors.
LSSNCA congratulates Rev. Dr. Philip Hirsch on his election as the next bishop of the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Weekly updates on the national state of play on policies, litigation, and programs that welcome refugees, their impact on the community LSSNCA serves, and ways for you to engage to ensure we continue to be a nation that welcomes people seeking safety.
Weekly updates on the national state of play on policies, litigation, and programs that welcome refugees, their impact on the community LSSNCA serves, and ways for you to engage to ensure we continue to be a nation that welcomes people seeking safety.
LSSNCA strongly denounces the administration’s recent proclamation imposing sweeping travel bans and restrictions on nationals from 19 countries. These travel bans and restrictions were issued under guise of national security. However, categorizing people based on their country of birth is both wrong and discriminatory.
Weekly updates on the national state of play on policies, litigation, and programs that welcome refugees, their impact on the community LSSNCA serves, and ways for you to engage to ensure we continue to be a nation that welcomes people seeking safety.
Read our newsletter to stay connected and involved with LSSNCA.
LSSNCA joined the Interfaith Immigration Coalition to express disappointment in the House’s passage of the reconciliation bill. As it stands, the bill poses a grave threat to the nation's moral fabric. If passed, the legislation would fundamentally reshape our communities by diverting unprecedented sums to detention, deportation, and border militarization while cutting essential health and food assistance programs that make our communities stronger.
LSSNCA is honored to announce the appointment of Eric Hembree to its Board of Directors. As the former Comptroller for the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), Mr. Hembree managed $5 billion annually in humanitarian assistance programs, domestically and worldwide. His financial stewardship enabled timely, life-saving humanitarian interventions and sustained the U.S. refugee resettlement infrastructure.
In 2021, thousands rushed to flee Taliban rule and LSSNCA became the largest resettlement agency on the East Coast. We welcomed more than 6,500 Afghan allies and families to the D.C. metro area, providing the tools and support needed to begin life again.
Among them was Peghla, an Afghan woman whose life had already spanned decades of war, displacement, and perseverance. As an electrical engineer by training, she had been forced to flee her country, return, then flee again. She knew both the weight of fear and the strength it takes to rebuild a life from scratch.
