After a controversial refugee center closed its doors in Alma almost a month ago, it is still unclear why. The center shut down seemingly overnight in early May after being in operation for just over three years.
Bethany Christian Services ran the refugee center for unaccompanied boys ages 12-17, who were taken from the southern border and brought to Alma. They were sheltered there for up to 45 days.
The center faced a long road to opening its doors with the community debating in public meetings whether it should welcome a refugee center. Its opening garnered national attention. But today people who live in Alma say they hardly noticed it was there.
Alma Mayor Greg Mapes said he's been given no explanation for why the center closed and what its day-to-day operations looked like.
"It was just kind of a nonevent, they sat there quietly and many people didn't even know it was there," he said.
WCMU made several attempts to interview Bethany Christian Services about the center’s closure over the past couple of weeks. But Bethany Christian Services never provided anyone for an interview, and instead issued a written statement.
“While the Transitional Assessment Center (TAC) program in Alma will be closing, Bethany remains committed to providing vulnerable children and families with family-strengthening and preservation services across our Michigan communities,” Bethany Public Relations team wrote in an email.
What was the Bethany Christian Services refugee center?
Bethany Christian Services is a nonprofit organization that provides adoption, foster and pregnancy counseling services, according to its website. It also offers resettlement and temporary foster care for refugees.
“Bethany demonstrates the love and compassion of Jesus Christ by protecting children, empowering youth and strengthening families through quality social services,” Bethany’s mission statement reads on the website.
Bethany Christian Services is currently suing the state of Michigan for religious discrimination after it was allegedly denied a grant, according to a September 2024 press release.
“In late 2023, Office of Global Michigan (OGM) officials took issue with Bethany’s practice of requiring its employees to affirm the organization’s statement of faith,” the Bethany Christian Services’ press release read. “The OGM then denied grant funding to Bethany the following calendar year.”
Defense attorney Jonathan Lauderbach told WCMU the case is “awaiting a hearing and decision from Judge Beckering on the Defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint.”
Bethany Christian Services said that the closure of the refugee center in Alma "is unrelated to any lawsuit."
Bethany rented the building from Michigan Masonic Home for their refugee center. Their lease was signed for three years, at a cost of $385,000 annually, according to the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun.
But as WCMU previously reported, the opening of the center embroiled the community in controversy.
A community divided
In the summer of 2021, Alma’s City Commission voted on rezoning the land for the refugee center, which at the time was the location of the Michigan Masonic nursing home. As the commission listened to public comments at city meetings, many people opposed the rezoning, WCMU reported.
Yvette Franco-Clark from Alma was one of the people who spoke out against the center. In May 2025, Franco-Clark told WCMU that her grandfather came to the United States from Mexico, but she still opposed permitting the rezoning for the refugee center.
Her concern was that Bethany Christian Services were not going to help children get back home or reunite them with their families, and that there was no way to make sure that the kids were not a part of a Mexican drug cartel.
“They never were clear on how they got these kids, what the process was that they operated under to get these kids, how they chose only young boys from 12 to 17,” Franco-Clark said. “Our question to them was why only boys and not girls, and we never got a clear answer.”
But according to a Morning Sun article published in 2021, Bethany Christian Services responded to the community concerns saying that unaccompanied children are taken into the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection after they crossed the border. Then, the children are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, who then sent them to Bethany Christian Services.
“Bethany provides reunification services for every child in its care, typically releasing a child to a family member within 45 days,” Krista Stevens, executive branch director for Bethany Christian Services told the Morning Sun in 2021. “For those children who are unable to reunify with family, Bethany has long-term foster care options available. Bethany’s proposed program in Alma is not for long-term care. If a child in Alma is eligible for long-term foster care, he will be transferred out of Alma.”
The center also had many supporters. According to WCMU’s previous reporting, locals couldn’t believe refugee kids weren’t welcome in Alma.
Maria Vetere told WCMU in 2021 that she moved to Michigan from Mexico as a child.
“We experienced some of the same things these kids are trying to escape,” Vetere said. “We didn’t have a place to stay. … It was getting very cold, I got a whooping cough, and my mom almost lost me too. We didn’t know anybody. We didn’t know English.”
Mapes was also one of those to vote in favor of approving the rezoning for the refugee center. He said he didn’t see a difference when it came to a senior center being converted to a refugee center, because the building was still being used to house people.
“Buildings that are sitting unused ... deteriorate rather quickly, so it was very sad to see,” Mapes said. “So any possibility of reopening it ... and bringing some jobs back to life was a positive in my mind.”
Why did the center close?
But the building is being emptied again, and Mapes doesn't know why. He said there was no relationship between the city and Bethany Christian Services.
About a month before Bethany Christian Services closed the center in Alma, the Trump administration ended a contract and terminated the work of the Acacia Center for Justice that provided unaccompanied minors with legal services through its network of partners across the country, according to the Associated Press.
Alma city manager Aerick Ripley also wasn't sure why the center closed.
“To my best knowledge, there is no clients coming through, and the facility is not needed,” he said.
Similarly, Franco-Clark said she didn't see any refugees affiliated with the center. She also said as the refugee center was operating, the community wasn’t informed on how their business was going.
“They were very quiet,” she said. “They did not educate the community at all once they opened up the center and how their operation was going, we knew nothing. We were pretty much in the dark the whole time that they were here.”
Editor's note: If you were an employee of the Bethany Christian Services refugee center or if you have knowledge about why the center closed, please contact WCMU’s Masha Smahliuk at smahl1m@cmich.edu.
