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From the President’s Desk Keep Our Doors Open, Part 1 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” —Hebrews 13:2 America’s cultural heritage is deeply rooted in preserving freedom for all and providing protection for those fleeing persecution, tyranny, armed conflict and human rights abuses. Some Americans have fled religious or political persecution; others fled ethnic or racial cleansing. These former refugees, now new Americans, enrich our lives with their cultures and feed our economy and workforce. Some have even become leaders in politics, science and the arts, such as Madeline Albright, Albert Einstein, Igor Stravinsky and Marlene Dietrich. This year, however, the refugee program is in deep trouble. Last November 21, the president authorized 70,000 refugees to come to America during fiscal year 2002. Nine months into the fiscal year only 17,439 refugees—less than 25 percent of the promised number—had been resettled in the United States. With only three months remaining it will be impossible to process the remaining 52,561 refugees in the pipeline. This is like a lifeboat leaving a sinking ship with thousands of empty seats. How can we restore the program and fill the lifeboat? We can do it, but it won’t be easy. We need you to tell the president and the State Department to reaffirm their commitment to refugees by allowing 2002’s unused slots to be added to 2003’s admission ceiling. This would turn a one-year tragic shortfall into a two-year success! And the United States would once again live up to its role as a world leader in its treatment of refugees. As we push to fill the empty seats on the lifeboat, we also need to focus on the budget—the dollar amount needed for refugee protection at home and abroad. Currently the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2003 funding request is only $705 million for Migration and Refugee Assistance. This amount is woefully inadequate to provide both refugee resettlement and vital protection and assistance to refugees overseas. An estimated $841 million is necessary to fill the empty seats and restore refugee admissions to needed levels. The country’s legitimate concerns over national security led to scaled-back admissions. After 9/11 there was considerable delay in the program while new measures were taken to ensure that refugees were not a security threat. Now those changes have taken effect: there are new Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel in the field, there are tougher restrictions in the adjudication and approval process for refugees, security clearance has been tightened and revamped, and the State Department’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration—the federal agency that deals with processing refugees abroad—is working closely with the U.S. volunteer agencies to identify vulnerable populations and to ensure that the process works. Everything is in place to admit the refugees. But the lifeboat is still mostly empty. If we close our doors on refugees, we are abandoning men, women and children who have fled war, persecution and terror; our country is losing the richness of refugee contributions; and we ourselves are missing out on the opportunity to entertain angels without knowing it. For Part 2 of "Keep Our Doors Open,"
including information on how you can advocate, read this month's Washington
Update.
LIRS President Ralston Deffenbaugh is on
sabbatical. In his absence, LIRS Vice President for Programs Anni
Wilson is acting president. |
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