The immigration issue in the United States is long-standing, political, racially-charged, and complex and as a result, to many, of great interest. Paul Jericho, associate director of the Multicultural Community Resource Center of Erie (MCRC), will address the current state of the issue relative to refugee resettlement in Erie and throughout the state and nation in a talk at the Warren Public Library on Wednesday, Feb. 5, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Jericho, who has more than 25 years experience working with refugees at a national and regional level, spoke in Warren two years ago before a Warren County League of Women Voters (LWV) meeting and subsequently has accompanied five groups of refugees, now living in Erie, to Warren County for outdoor recreation.

MCRC-Erie has been in existence since 1975 and currently employs approximately 50 people, many of them immigrants themselves, to bring a multitude of programs to the refugee community in Erie which presently comprises 15 percent of the population.

Jericho’s talk will be entitled “Immigration 101,” and he will explain what MCRC-Erie does for refugees from far flung countries where strife dominates the landscape.

Erie is considered a resettlement city, one of several in Pennsylvania, including York, Lancaster, Allentown, and many others. Since 2002, more than 34,000 refugees from 62 different countries have resettled in Pennsylvania.

The presentation in the Slater Room is open to the public free of charge. Visitors’ questions will be entertained, and light refreshments will be provided by the Warren County ad hoc committee that has welcomed the Erie visitors for the past two years.