Just as advocates expected, raising the annual refugee cap for 2021 by the Biden administration is proving a challenge to domestic resettlement agencies and overseas candidate screening centers that atrophied from underuse during the Trump presidency. According to newly released…
Here’s one simple reason to support refugee resettlement
When I talk to people about why I — a pastor at my church — believe refugees should be welcomed in our country, my rationale is simple: Jesus was a refugee. One would think that message would resonate with others…
Biden administration rushing to strengthen DACA, official says
The Biden Administration isn’t waiting for Congress to act before working to strengthen DACA, the Obama-era program that provides legal residency to immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, a high-ranking federal immigration official said during a May 17…
Charity versus justice
It’s an old saying but true: If you have to keep rescuing people out of a raging river, eventually you ought to walk upstream to see who’s throwing those people in the river. This is the difference between charity and…
Faith leaders call on Americans to ‘welcome the stranger’ as Biden administration announces new refugee admissions cap
The Biden administration has announced it will raise the refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for the current fiscal year and to 125,000 for the 2022 fiscal year. This is a welcome and much-needed step as it follows a months-long delay…
Faith leaders express joy as Biden finally raises ceiling for refugee admissions to 62,500
After an outcry from the faith community and immigration advocates, the Biden administration May 3 fully reversed course and returned to its earlier plan to raise the ceiling for refugee admissions this fiscal year to 62,500 people. That will be…
8,100 asylum seekers sent to Mexico by Trump now processed into U.S. but there’s still more to be done
Despite the well-publicized problems with a surge of migrants attempting to cross into the United States through the southern border, the Biden administration reports success on one related objective: Ending the controversial “remain in Mexico” policy of the Trump administration….
Biden administration skewered for keeping Trump-era cap on refugee resettlement
Immigration advocates — including numerous faith-based groups — reacted harshly to the Biden administration’s April 16 announcement that it would not, after all, raise the ceiling for admission of refugees this year. The blowback was so swift and harsh that…
We cannot now close our border to those fleeing the horror we helped create
Why should we open our border to poor people from Central America? What if they are really terrorists? What if they have COVID, or something even more contagious? How can we afford to take care of “their” children when we…