From the President’s Desk
February 2005

Making a Better World for Refugees and Migrants:
LIRS’s 10-Year Advocacy Goals
By Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS President

At LIRS we envision a world where all communities welcome refugees and migrants. We believe that human life is sacred, a gift from God. We strive for a world where all people are treated with dignity, compassion and respect. We see ourselves as catalysts and conveners in the work of building welcoming communities. A vital part of that work is through advocacy.

What changes would make our country, the United States, more welcoming? In response to that question, the LIRS board of directors adopted seven 10-year advocacy goals at its October meeting. In these goals LIRS publicly sets out an ambitious and inspiring vision of a better world for refugees and migrants. The goals are firmly grounded in our service experience. They give us clear direction as we organize our advocacy efforts.

If (when!) these goals are achieved, there will be no more refugee “warehousing”—refugees would be assured a durable solution within five years of fleeing their home countries. The United States would do its part by more generously welcoming refugees and asylum seekers. Migrant and refugee families would be reunited. The undocumented among us would be provided a road to permanency. No longer would noncriminal, nondangerous migrants be held behind bars in immigration detention. Basic civil liberties and legal due process would be accorded to migrants, including paid legal counsel for the indigent.

Why 10 years? We realize that these goals are ambitious and will take time to realize. Yet they are practical and achievable. We thought that 10 years was enough time to work to mobilize the constituency and partnership support to achieve the goals without being so far in the future as to be unrealistic. In three years’ time, the goals will be reviewed and possibly revised.

By adopting these goals, the LIRS board has in effect issued a policy manifesto for all to see. LIRS commends these goals to you. We invite your reactions and, most importantly, your partnership as we work together to make this nation and this world a more welcoming place.

The Goals

1. Expand and revitalize refugee and asylum protection.

The United States will increase its commitment and funding for overseas refugee assistance and protection to assure durable solutions for refugees within five years of flight.

Responding to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ call for resettlement countries to do their fair share by taking in one refugee per 1,000 population per year, the United States will establish a presidential determination of 250,000 refugees with special attention paid to admitting the most vulnerable refugees.

The United States will assure that all asylum seekers have generous access to protection and to fair procedures, generous appeal rights, and work authorization or federally funded survival support while their cases are being processed, thereby providing an international model for humanitarian protection.

2. Assure the integration of refugees and asylees into welcoming communities.

The U.S. government will provide asylees and refugees generous access to permanent legal status and to a fair process, and, with the community, will provide the vital services and programs to assure healthy integration, self-determination and empowerment.

3. End senseless immigration detention and release migrants to welcoming communities.

Unless migrants are a flight risk or danger to the community, U.S. officials will release them from detention and will fund community-based release alternatives to assure that such release occurs.

4. Guarantee that the most vulnerable migrants have legal representation.

The U.S. government will fund legal services for all indigent individuals in immigration detention, all unaccompanied migrant children, all asylum seekers, and all other migrants identified as most vulnerable.

5. Protect and care for migrant children who are alone in the world.

The U.S. government will provide generous access to protection and legal status for separated refugee and migrant children to protect them from the unique vulnerabilities of being children alone in the world. Separated children under U.S. government protection will benefit from a comprehensive system in which any child’s U.S. custody and care or the refugee child’s durable solution decision is in the child’s best interest.

6. Reunite families

To assure family unity, the U.S. government will provide refugees, asylees, other documented immigrants and their families with generous access to permanent legal status, fair process, and vital services and programs.

The U.S. government will establish comprehensive immigration reform for undocumented migrants that provides generous access to status and a road to permanency, while assuring family unity, worker rights and human rights.

7. Accord basic civil liberties to migrants.

Consistent with international human rights, the U.S. government will provide basic civil liberties to migrants comparable to those guaranteed to citizens, including due process, freedom from arbitrary detention, open and fair proceedings, paid legal counsel for the indigent, and independent adjudicators to decide issues of liberty and legal status.

NOTE: Be sure to the entire February/March issue of FYI for a more in-depth look at LIRS's advocacy plans and structures, especially "The LIRS Policy and Advocacy Department: Pursuing Justice With Principles and Pragmatism" by Bernadette Passade Cissé, LIRS's new vice president for policy and advocacy!

Read past articles.