The Bangor refugee resettlement office run by Catholic Charities Maine is planning to move 150 migrants into cities and towns within a 100-mile radius of Bangor over the next year.

Catholic Charities Maine is one of three nonprofit organizations in the state that has been designated by the federal government to be a refugee resettlement agency, alongside the Lewiston-based Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS) and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, based in Portland.

Under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), the president sets a ceiling for the number of migrants the U.S. will accept annually as refugees, who are defined under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as foreign nationals who are facing humanitarian concerns or persecution in their home country.

Refugees are a separate population from asylum-seeking migrants, who may cross the border into the U.S. illegally before being apprehended and making an asylum claim, and then live in the country for several years awaiting the adjudication of their asylum application.