Press Statement

As the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes has reached the highest point in recorded history, dozens of churches – including several of the largest and most influential churches in the country – are joining with World Relief to launch “Churches of Welcome.”

World Relief and Open Doors US today published the State of the Golden Door Report, detailing the current state of religious persecution around the world and its connection to U.S. refugee resettlement and asylum policies.

On August 14, the Africa CDC declared mpox (previously known as monkeypox) as a global health threat. The disease has now spread to 14 African countries, resulting in over 17,000 cases and 500 deaths, as well as heightening the threat of mpox becoming a larger, more devastating global pandemic. 

Today, President Biden announced a new administrative policy designed to benefit married couples in situations where an undocumented immigrant is married to a U.S. citizen and has been present in the United States for at least a decade.
The executive action restricts entrance into the U.S. between ports of entry to asylum-seekers, once a 7-consecutive-calendar-day average of 2,500 encounters or more has been reached. This effectively means that asylum-seekers would be currently unable to enter because daily crossings are currently higher than the listed figure in the executive order.

This Easter holiday, World Relief celebrates its 80th anniversary, marking decades of partnering with local churches and communities to address some of the world’s greatest crises. From a small church movement in 1944, World Relief has grown to be a global network that has operated across 100 countries over its organizational history. 

Today (Feb. 28, 2024), the Evangelical Immigration Table hosted a virtual press conference on polling released today by Lifeway Research highlighting growing support for immigration reform among evangelicals, 77% of whom want Congress to act this year. A recording of the call is available here. 

Late Sunday afternoon, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators released a supplemental funding bill that includes significant funding and policy reforms intended to address an unsustainable situation along the U.S.-Mexico border.