A Call for Compassion for our Refugee Neighbors

Urge President Trump to sustain refugee protections and compassionate policies.

Why a Statement from Christians?

In November, World Relief received news of a new policy to re-interview refugees who were lawfully resettled in the U.S. over the last 5 years. In January, ICE agents began rounding up lawfully present refugees, including children, and placing them in detention.

Approximately 230,000 individuals who have already gone through rigorous vetting overseas — a process involving robust interviews, background checks and medical reviews that can often take a year or longer — are now being threatened with the possibility of deportation. Most of these individuals have only recently found refuge and the opportunity to rebuild their lives here in the United States.

This initiative is inhumane and un-American. It subjects our newest neighbors to unnecessary and retraumatizing scrutiny, leading many to fear that they will be returned to life-threatening situations. While it is reasonable to reexamine an individual case if credible concerns arise, forcing all refugees resettled during this period to undergo new scrutiny is unnecessary and generates profound fear among people who have done everything our government has asked of them. And detaining individuals in this process cruelly separates families, traumatizes children and leads economically self-sustaining families into situations where they cannot work and provide for themselves.

As a leading Christian voice and advocacy organization, World Relief is committed to elevating the voices and concerns of American Christians. Polling shows that most Evangelical Christians support refugee resettlement and secure, compassionate policies that support this vulnerable population. We want the Trump Administration to hear this message loud and clear, and we need your voice.

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Read the Statement

Dear President Trump and Members of Congress,

Recently, the federal government announced a new policy to re-interview refugees who were vetted overseas and lawfully resettled between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025, affecting approximately 230,000 individuals. The memo also halts all processing of green card applications for these individuals.

As followers of Jesus, our faith compels us to care for our refugee neighbors and to value their safety and flourishing as we value our own. We are deeply concerned that this drastic and unprecedented action will have unnecessary consequences for neighbors we have come to know and love.
Churches across the country have long played a vital role in welcoming and supporting refugees. We know that refugees are among the most thoroughly vetted individuals admitted lawfully to the United States—screened both to confirm the persecution they’ve endured and to ensure they pose no security risk.
Our commitment to this program is rooted in our faith in Jesus, who Himself fled persecution as a child (Matthew 2:13–14) and who taught that nations will be judged by how they welcome the stranger and care for “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31–46), doing “no wrong to a neighbor” (Romans 13:10). We believe our nation has a moral obligation to offer refuge and to ensure those who arrive are embraced and welcomed.
Refugee resettlement should not be a partisan issue. It is grounded in a bipartisan law carefully implemented by administrations of both parties for decades. While it is reasonable to reexamine an individual case if credible concerns arise, forcing all refugees resettled during this period to undergo new scrutiny is unnecessary and cruel.
This dramatic, blunt policy change impacts people whom many of us know as friends and neighbors. We have welcomed them into our communities, helped them to adjust to a new culture and learn a new language, worked alongside them in our jobs and worshiped alongside them in our churches. Many of these refugees have spent years fleeing persecution and violence, and this decision now reignites unnecessary fear that they could once again lose the safety they’ve found in the United States, particularly as many other lawfully-present immigrants have recently had their legal protections in the United States withdrawn.

While our concern is for all those who meet the legal definition of a refugee, it’s also notable that most refugees affected by this decision are fellow Christians. An estimated 70,000 or more Christians resettled during this period faced persecution in the fifty countries that Open Doors categorizes as the most dangerous places in the world to follow Jesus. We appreciate President Trump’s stated commitment to stand with and protect persecuted Christians and others fleeing religious persecution; this policy undermines that commitment.

Beyond our concern for refugees already resettled in our communities, we also urge the U.S. government to reconsider the recently-set, historically-low ceiling for Fiscal Year 2026 refugee admissions of just 7,500, with a narrow focus on just one population group that would exclude those persecuted on account of their faith and fleeing some of the world’s greatest crises.

Our faith compels us to speak up: please do all in your authority to ensure that the U.S. once again stands as a refuge for those who have fled persecution.

World Relief’s Nov. 2025 Response

BALTIMORE, Md. – Today, reports of an internal memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicated that the Trump administration would halt the processing of applications for Lawful Permanent Resident status for refugees resettled by the Biden administration between the years of 2021 and 2025, leaving an estimated 200,000 individuals in limbo while their cases are being readjudicated. World Relief is deeply grieved by this decision, which will inevitably generate alarm among many individuals who will fear being returned to the countries where they faced persecution for reasons such as their faith, their association with the U.S. military and their peaceful opposition to authoritarian political movements.

Under U.S. law, refugees are legally defined as people who have fled a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, national origin and/or membership in a particular social group. Refugees enter the United States lawfully with an indefinite legal status after undergoing a thorough overseas vetting process, then are allowed and required by law to apply for their Lawful Permanent Resident status, also known as a “green card,” one year after arrival. The memo circulated today seeks to halt processing for these individuals’ Lawful Permanent Resident status and subject individuals who were already lawfully admitted to additional interviews.

"Refugees admitted under the U.S. refugee resettlement program have undergone some of the most rigorous vetting of any immigrant lawfully admitted into the United States, yet this sweeping re-interview initiative is nothing less than a calculated effort to strip lawful status from thoroughly-vetted, law-abiding people,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief. “It is a moral and ethical betrayal of due process at a time when the Trump administration is attempting to lower the standard for refugee admissions to include Afrikaners and others who do not meet the legal standard of a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ that past refugees have been required to meet.”

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last July, refugees who have not yet been granted Lawful Permanent Resident status are no longer able to qualify for SNAP benefits. This indefinite delay in processing Lawful Permanent Resident applications from refugees will also indefinitely delay their eligibility for this vital nutritional support for which refugees have long qualified under the law. Furthermore, it will prevent refugees from filing petitions for certain family-based visas, deferring family reunification.

“Just in time for Thanksgiving, when many Americans remember Pilgrims who fled religious persecution in England and sought religious freedom in the United States, our government is subjecting more than 100,000 Christian refugees resettled by the prior administration — many of whom fled religious persecution on account of their faith — to needless, retraumatizing additional scrutiny, leading many to fear they could be returned to persecution,” said Matthew Soerens, Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief.

World Relief will be working through its network of local offices, affiliates and church partners to help provide resettled refugees with support as this new policy is implemented.

“One thing that we’ve seen consistently over the past year is that, despite dramatic rehauls of longstanding immigration policies, American Christians are standing in the gap for their refugee neighbors,” said World Relief’s Senior Vice President of U.S. Programs, Aerlande Wontamo. “We’re very troubled by today’s news, but we also want to assure the brave women, men and children who have been rebuilding their lives in communities across the United States that we will continue to stand with them, as will many American citizens who have enthusiastically welcomed them.”

World Relief’s Jan. 2026 Response

“Operation PARRIS” in MN violates U.S. invitation to refugees, terrorizes innocent families

Contact: Lauren Rasmussen, media@wr.org, 802.310.4255

BALTIMORE, Md. – This weekend, federal immigration agents detained dozens of lawfully present refugees in Minnesota, including children. The agents, some dressed in plain clothes, lured refugees out of their homes where they were transported to holding facilities and then, in many cases, out of the state. Individuals who have followed every rule and submitted their Green Card applications, as allowed and required one year after resettlement, are now detained and fear being returned to situations of persecution. World Relief categorically condemns the aggressive tactics ICE agents are using to ensnare rule-following refugees, calling for the release of all lawfully present detainees not charged with any crime and the cessation of what the Department of Homeland Security has called Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening (Operation PARRIS).

“This is a five-alarm fire. These are not the ‘worst of the worst;’ these are innocent children and families who fled the worst wars and persecution imaginable, who were invited by the American people to become Americans under the terms of American law,” commented Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, which in partnership with local affiliate Arrive Ministries resettled several families that were detained over the weekend. “This shameful and unpatriotic operation preys on our basest fears and manipulates the truth. Enough. ICE must be held accountable, and this operation must cease.”

The refugees detained in recent days, like all individuals admitted through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, were admitted under the lawful authority of the Refugee Act of 1980, a bill passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. Before the U.S. government extends an invitation to resettle in the U.S., they must undergo rigorous examination abroad by the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies to prove that they have a well-founded fear of persecution due to their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership with a particular group. About 30 percent of refugees resettled in fiscal year 2024 were Christian refugees from the 50 countries where Christians face the most severe religious persecution, while other refugees have been persecuted as members of other minority faiths, on account of their race, because of their affiliation with the U.S. military or because of peaceful opposition to authoritarian political regimes.

One year after arrival, refugees are allowed by law to obtain their Lawful Permanent Resident status, often known as “Green Cards.” Many, if not most, of those detained over the weekend had already submitted their applications for Lawful Permanent Resident status. Nevertheless, ICE officers arrived at their homes, in some cases entering under false pretenses. Others were detained in stores or other public places.

In November, a memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services halted in-process Green Card adjudication for those resettled as refugees between January 2021 and February 2025. The memo also announced that refugees who arrived during the Biden administration would be subjected to interviews to re-prove their fear of persecution, violating the promise the U.S. made to those refugees to be a haven of safety. In December, Operation PARRIS launched in Minnesota, reportedly targeting the 5,600 refugees in Minnesota who had not yet been granted Green Cards, and these detentions seem to be a part of this operation.

“We lament the suffering and recurring trauma of our immigrant neighbors, including many refugees who have fled violence or persecution and have followed every rule,” commented Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. “These are not the nefarious criminals that we should deport. These are families with children whom our country initially welcomed. As evangelicals, we believe every person bears God’s image and deserves safety, dignity and fair treatment.”

Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, added: “When the U.S. rounded up Japanese-Americans, the church remained largely silent. When the U.S. turned away Jews fleeing the Holocaust, the church remained largely silent. But when hundreds of thousands fled Vietnam and other parts of Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, the church stepped up and led the movement to welcome, and evangelical and other Christian churches have played a central role in the refugee resettlement process ever since. We are at a crossroads. The persecuted church is among us, and our government is rounding them up. The church cannot remain silent.”

World Relief calls on the administration and on lawmakers to suspend Operation PARRIS and initiate a thorough, independent investigation of immigration enforcement, ensuring that enforcement is appropriately focused on those convicted of serious criminal offenses, not on lawfully present individuals not alleged to have committed any crime. World Relief has consistently called for immigration policy that respects the rule of law and the God-given dignity of every person.

World Relief is also calling on Christians to add their voices to the thousands who have already voiced opposition to this push to re-litigate refugees’ legal status by joining this sign-on letter to President Trump and Members of Congress.

World Relief is appealing to churches and individuals, many of whom generously stepped into the gap when the U.S. government withdrew funding for recently arrived refugees roughly one year ago, to provide financial support to provide immigration legal services and other support to refugees and other vulnerable immigrants now at risk. To give, visit World Relief’s giving page.

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