Families, community suffer as refugee admissions are slashed
On the night of Tuesday, Oct. 27, President Donald Trump signed the Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for fiscal year 2021. The PD set the refugee admissions ceiling at 15,000. This represents about 80,000 fewer people than our country resettled on average each year under administrations of both parties since the program began 40 years ago.
The fiscal 2021 PD flies in the face of our country's historic role as a beacon of hope, safety and freedom — and a global leader protecting the world's most vulnerable. What is especially disturbing about this PD are the restrictive categories the president established for determining who will be allowed refuge.
The new PD will exclude, for example, Aden Hassan's mother. The Dispatch wrote on Feb. 5, 2018, about Aden's agonizing wait for his mother. Aden's mother is still not here, and under the administration's new rules she will not be able to come during fiscal 2021. Likewise, many other families who had split cases will continue to languish in precarious situations hoping for a change in policy.
The restrictions are a tragic continuation of the administration's pattern of reducing access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for Muslim refugees. Already, the administration had significantly slowed processing for refugees of nine Muslim-majority countries that had the effect of decreasing admissions from these countries by 93% over three years (fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2019).
Even those who are ostensibly included in the allocations scheme will be left behind. In fiscal 2020, the administration designated 4,000 slots for Iraqis who had risked their lives supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq. Only 161 were admitted to the U.S. (4% of their 4,000 allocation) despite an estimated 110,000 Iraqis waiting approval for resettlement. Admission of this group was nowhere near on track to meet the allocation cap even prior to the onset of the pandemic. There was a pause in arrivals when the pandemic hit but safety precautions were established and people have been safely resettled during the pandemic, undergoing thorough screenings before departure and quarantining upon arrival.
Once refugees settle into their new homes across the United States, they strengthen our communities. Refugees have contributed greatly to America in ordinary times and have continued to show up for their new communities during the COVID-19 crisis, with many on the frontlines, including 176,000 serving as health care workers and 175,000 working in the food supply chain.
Multiple studies, including the administration's own, have concluded that over time refugees contribute significantly more to the economy than they take during their initial resettlement period. Slashing their numbers is counterproductive.
The House Judiciary Committee issued a report addressing the issue of the 545 children who were separated by the administration from the children's parents and who the administration cannot now locate. The report described this as reckless incompetence or intentional cruelty. The current refugee policy could be described in the same way.
On Nov. 11, our resettlement program was supposed to welcome a mother named Claudia and her two children. She fled her home country more than 10 years ago, has been waiting for resettlement and was finally approved — the family's flight was scheduled. Because of the new PD, Claudia and her children are no longer eligible to come to the United States.
We received notice that her flight has been canceled. Can you imagine how devastating this is? This is a tragedy that flies in the face of U.S. values and public opinion. U.S. communities have affirmed, repeatedly, their strong support for welcoming refugees.
In recent weeks, 183 organizations, 540 state and local elected officials, and over 600 faith leaders and faithbased groups demanded that the program be restored. Repairing the damage done to our historic refugee resettlement program is an issue that should unite Americans around our country's core values, not divide us.
Angie Plummer is executive director of Community Refugee & Immigration Services in Columbus.