FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2021
Contact: Timothy Younger | tyoung@lirs.org | 443-257-6310
Washington D.C. – The U.S. resettled the bottom variety of refugees because the creation of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in 1980. For Fiscal Yr 2021 which ended September 30, the U.S. admitted simply 11,411 refugees, regardless of the Biden administration’s lifting of the annual refugee cap to 62,500 in Might. The earlier record-low admissions figures got here in Fiscal Yr 2020, throughout which the Trump administration resettled 11,814 refugees. The very best annual admissions on file got here in FY 1980 below President Reagan, when the U.S. welcomed 207,116 refugees.
The admissions figures don’t embrace Afghans evacuated throughout the U.S. withdrawal who’ve predominantly entered the nation on a tenuous authorized standing often known as “humanitarian parole.”
The next is an announcement by Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the nation’s largest faith-based nonprofit devoted completely to serving refugees, asylum seekers, and different weak immigrant communities:
We’re saddened however unsurprised by the record-low admission figures for this fiscal 12 months. It speaks to the lasting injury of the Trump administration’s four-year assault on the refugee program. Rebuilding this system from the rubble has additional been sophisticated by the pandemic, which has largely prevented the federal authorities from processing a strong pipeline of refugee arrivals.
Regardless of the decimated infrastructure the Biden White Home inherited, duty now sits with the brand new administration when it comes to resettlement figures for this fiscal 12 months. If we’re to achieve President Biden’s aim of welcoming 125,000 refugees, the administration have to be aggressive and progressive in ramping up processing. That ought to embrace the implementation of further personnel, distant interviews, a strong and considerate non-public sponsorship pilot, and different measures to streamline the applying course of.
It bears repeating that refugees make our nation stronger in revitalizing our financial system, reinvigorating our workforce, and enriching our tradition. Welcoming new People isn’t simply the suitable factor to do – it’s the sensible factor to do. There’s overwhelming help throughout the nation and throughout the aisle for this lifesaving program – a four-decade expression of our highest beliefs put into observe. We urge the Biden administration to do all the pieces in its energy to align refugee admissions with our core values as a welcoming nation.
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About us:
Based in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is the most important faith-based nationwide nonprofit devoted completely to serving refugees, asylum seekers, and different weak immigrant communities in the US. By practically 80 years of service and advocacy, LIRS has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America, together with 10,000 Afghan allies by way of the Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) program.
