Advocacy Update
December 2005

Successful Steps: Recapping LIRS’s 2005 Advocacy Efforts
By Bernadette Passade Cissé, LIRS Vice President for Policy and Advocacy, and Matt Wilch, LIRS Director for Policy

In 2005 LIRS and our partners achieved the following successes related to LIRS’s 10-year advocacy goals:

Expand and revitalize refugee and asylum protection. The United States resettled 53,813 refugees—1,000 more than in 2004. The Department of State (DOS) increased the amount of per capita funding for each arriving refugee and affiliate from $800 to $850. DOS announced plans to resettle from Thailand more than 10,000 Burmese refugees, including children. DOS also announced plans to resettle 15,000 Burundians from Tanzania following a joint U.S. government–NGO trip to East Africa in which LIRS participated. DOS has indicated a willingness to resettle some of the more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. LIRS and others articulated policy remedies to the U.S. government for Haitians fearful of returning home and for potential refugees unable to escape Haiti. The REAL ID Act passed, reducing access to refugee protection, but advocates ameliorated the language of the worst provisions and are pursuing ways to reverse the impact of the “material support” provisions. In 2006, we look forward to seeing positive policy changes resulting from the 2005 processing of Uzbek refugees in Romania in which LIRS participated in cooperation with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Assure the integration of refugees and asylees into welcoming communities. Congress removed the cap of 10,000 on the number of asylees who could adjust annually to legal permanent resident status. To guide future service and advocacy, Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) determined optimum outcomes for the resettlement of refugees. A DOS pilot to issue work authorization to refugees upon arrival as required by law was successful.

End senseless immigration detention and release migrants to welcoming communities. Congress increased funding for alternatives to detention from $3 million to $16 million. Unfortunately, Congress authorized 40,000 new detention beds over eight years. Detention Watch Network emerged as a revitalized coalition of advocates.

Guarantee that the most vulnerable migrants have legal representation. Congress doubled funding from $1 million to $2 million for legal orientation programs (LOP) in immigration detention. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) instituted a $3 million, three-year pilot legal services program for unaccompanied children in ORR custody.

Protect and care for migrant children who are alone in the world. ORR, with implementing partners LIRS and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), continues to refine services for unaccompanied children. Since 2002 the number of children in detention facilities has fallen from 30 percent to 3 percent. RCUSA and DOS created a working group to identify groups of refugee children in need. The Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2005 is pending before Congress. Its provisions include access to guardians and lawyers.

Reunite families. LIRS acknowledged the bipartisan Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act as best advancing LIRS’s comprehensive immigration reform principles, including reuniting families. LIRS promoted the act through a number of activities, including advertisements in the New York Times and Washington Post showing the support of over 250 organizations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly passed a resolution urging bishops to appoint immigration task forces to work on behalf of migrants, refugees and their families.

Accord basic civil liberties to migrants. LIRS helped with two amicus briefs in Clark v. Martinez, Slip Opinion, No. 03-878 (January 12, 2005), in which the Supreme Court further limited the Department of Homeland Security’s power to indefinitely detain noncitizens in immigration detention.

LIRS will build on the momentum of this progress on so many fronts as we pursue even greater advocacy success in 2006.

Read past Advocacy/Washington Updates.