RCUSA deeply concerned by Reports of Reduced Refugee Resettlement Numbers, Urges Administration to resettle at Least 75,000 Refugees in Fiscal Year 2018

Refugee Council USA is deeply distressed by recent news reports suggesting that the Trump Administration is considering lowering the refugee admissions ceiling for 2018 to less than 50,000, the lowest in our nation’s history.  Such an action would be heartless and irresponsible.

The United States has long been a beacon of hope for the world’s most vulnerable populations and through the US refugee resettlement program, our nation sends a strong signal to the rest of the world to do its part.

At a time when the world is facing the largest refugee crisis in recorded history, abdicating our leadership role will erode global resettlement capacity and harm a program that has long served as an invaluable foreign policy and national security tool.

Says Hans van de Weerd, Chair of Refugee Council USA; “It is outrageous that there are individuals within the Trump Administration, with demonstrable anti immigrant and refugee records  trying to end the resettlement program through an extraordinarily low admissions ceiling, putting some of the world’s most vulnerable at even greater risk.

RCUSA urges the President and his Administration to use facts not fiction when setting policy around refugee resettlement and to resettle at least 75,000 refugees in fiscal year 2018.

Refugees do not pose the security risk that critics of resettlement claim they do. They are more vetted than any other individual seeking entry into our country.  Refugees quickly become self-sufficient and contribute to our communities and economy.

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is also an expression of America’s care and compassion, and deeply rooted in local and faith-based communities. It is one of America’s proudest achievements, having saved the lives of over 3 million refugees since 1975 under democratic and republican administrations.

To drastically curtail this life saving program amounts to a betrayal of the founding values that this nation was built on. As Americans, we must do better than this.

For questions, please contact RCUSA Associate Director Danielle Grigsby at dgrigsby@RCUSA.org