Onondaga County honors refugees with flag parade and proclamation

A parade of flags moved from the Onondaga County Courthouse to Syracuse City Hall as County Executive J. Ryan McMahon joined officials honoring refugees from countries now reflected in neighborhoods, schools and workplaces across the county. The proclamation tied the observance to World Refugee Day, the June 20 date the United Nations uses to recognize the strength and courage of people forced to flee conflict or persecution.

The county proclamation was honorary and not legally binding, but it underscored a very local reality: Syracuse has been home to more than 10,000 refugees, and about 9,500 refugees resettled in Onondaga County over a 10-year span. Onondaga County’s April 2, 2026 proclamation said the county expected nearly 1,900 legal refugees over the next year, a number that points to continued resettlement even as federal policy and funding have shifted.

That pressure has already reached the agencies that help new arrivals. Catholic Charities of Onondaga County cut 51 jobs from its refugee resettlement office in February 2025, and in March 2025 a Syracuse nonprofit laid off 19 more workers after federal refugee funding was reduced. Those cuts hit the local infrastructure that helps families find housing, enroll children in school and connect with employers once they arrive in Syracuse.

World Refugee Day has become a recurring civic marker in the city, not just a ceremonial moment. Syracuse’s 2025 programming was scheduled for June 20 through June 28, including a June 28 event at Grant Middle School, showing how the observance stretches beyond downtown into a school building where refugee families and educators meet every day. The World Refugee Day Planning Committee organized the observance, keeping the focus on both welcome and the barriers many families still face after resettlement.

City and county leaders have used flags and proclamations before to recognize the refugee community’s role in Syracuse’s identity. McMahon and then-Mayor Ben Walsh previously issued a World Refugee Day proclamation in the city, part of a long local pattern of public recognition that now sits alongside the measurable work of resettlement, school enrollment, job placement and neighborhood life.