World Relief Responds to Biden Administration’s Announcement on Refugee Resettlement

February 4, 2021

CONTACT:
Lauren Carl
lauren.carl@pinkston.co
(703) 388-6734

BALTIMORE  – Today in an address at the State Department, President Biden announced an upcoming executive order focused on strengthening the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which includes consultations with Congress on refugee resettlement that will lead to a Presidential Determination for FY22 of 125,000 refugees. World Relief commends President Biden for taking necessary steps forward in the ongoing process of rebuilding the U.S. refugee resettlement program, and we eagerly await the opportunity to welcome more refugees to the United States.

Today’s announcement follows three executive orders related to immigration signed on Tuesday centered around creating a task force for reunifying immigrant families, developing a strategy to address irregular migration across the Southern border, creating a more humane asylum system and promoting immigrant integration and inclusion in American society.

“Rebuilding our nation’s significantly-dismantled refugee resettlement system will take a great deal of effort and advocacy, as will reuniting families separated by our government along the border, restoring our asylum system and re-opening legal immigration processes that have been restricted in recent years,” says World Relief CEO Tim Breene. “While pleased with the swift release of executive orders related to immigration and this announcement on refugee resettlement, World Relief urges the administration to follow through on these preliminary actions with concrete policy changes that are within the administration’s authority, including resetting the refugee resettlement ceiling for the current fiscal year, ending the ‘Migrant Protection Protocols’ and other policies restricting access to asylum and restoring immigration legal processes that facilitate family reunification.”

As one of nine national agencies that resettle refugees in partnership with the U.S. State Department, World Relief is particularly pleased by today’s declaration that the United States will be re-committing to global leadership in refugee resettlement. For more than four decades, World Relief has partnered with both the U.S. government and with thousands of local churches to welcome and provide integration support to refugee families who fled persecution in their countries of origin because of their faith, their ethnicity, their political opinions and other reasons.

Along with our peer organizations, we are ready and eager to once again welcome a historically normal number of refugees to the U.S., and we urge President Biden to expeditiously follow up on today’s announcement by resetting the refugee ceiling, ramping up overseas processing and rebuilding the refugee resettlement infrastructure within the U.S.

“World Relief offices around the country are eager to expand and welcome those who have fled their homes in pursuit of a better, safer future,” says World Relief President Scott Arbeiter. “It is imperative that we come together in recognition that this is not a partisan issue; it’s a belief issue. It’s a matter of loving our neighbors as Scripture commands.”

World Relief also acknowledges that many other immigration policy changes will require bipartisan congressional action. We thank Members of Congress for reintroducing the Dream Act of 2021 today and we urge them to continue to work together on a bipartisan basis to forge the consensus necessary to provide permanent legal status and eventually the opportunity to apply for citizenship for DACA recipients and other Dreamers, for long-term residents of the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status and for undocumented immigrants who would meet appropriate qualifications, such as the payment of a fine. Together with our partner churches, we will continue to advocate for immigration reforms rooted in our biblical values.

To learn more about World Relief, visit worldrelief.org.

To download a PDF version of this press release, click here.

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About World Relief

World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization that brings sustainable solutions to the world’s greatest problems – disasters, extreme poverty, violence, oppression, and mass displacement. For over 75 years, we’ve partnered with churches and community leaders in the U.S. and abroad to bring hope, healing and transformation to the most vulnerable.

Learn more at worldrelief.org.