U.S. refugee resettlement program under siege from politics

It’s World Refugee Month, and yet the U.S. refugee resettlement program is under siege.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court largely reinstated the president’s ‘travel ban,” pending a hearing in the fall.

It’s much worse than a travel ban: The president’ executive order that temporarily denies entry to foreign nationals of six Muslim-majority countries also attempts to shut out 60,000 refugees the U.S. promised to protect — over half of whom are children. It slashes the number of refugees who will be allowed into the country this year from 110,000 to 50,000 and bans refugees for four months: 60,000 lives are at stake.

Multiple federal courts have blocked this executive order, on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional. The Trump administration has moved quickly to bring this battle to the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, refugees who were promised safe haven in the U.S. wait — in cities where they have no protection and in camps where there is not enough food, clean water or medical care.

With over 21 million refugees in the world today, we’re facing the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Fewer than 1 percent of these 21 million refugees get resettled to a country where they can rebuild their lives in safety, much less to the U.S. Refugees who come here are both the most vulnerable and heavily vetted immigrants in the world.

Welcoming refugees should not be the politically divisive issue it has become.

The U.S. refugee resettlement program enjoyed strong bipartisan support, from its inception in 1980 until November 2015, when a fake Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on Paris. None of the attackers in Paris, San Bernardino, Orlando, Manchester or London were refugees. Yet they have become the targets of our national security debates, from the xenophobic rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign to the current controversy over the “travel ban.”

The executive order purports to protect us from terrorist acts by foreign nationals. In fact, the U.S. has the most rigorous refugee vetting process in the world. It involves extensive security checks by the National Counter-terrorism Center, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the intelligence community. Specially trained DHS officers conduct in-person interviews of each refugee applicant. Their fingerprints are screened by the FBI, DHS and Defense Department, whose database includes prints from around the world.

Refugees who successfully complete this process are then invited by the U.S. government to resettle here. They are assigned to one of the country’s 350 refugee resettlement agencies, like IRIS — Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, in New Haven. Since 1982, IRIS has resettled over 5,000 refugees to Connecticut.

In 2016, IRIS resettled 530 refugees, mostly women and children, from war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Sudan, and Eritrea.

The refugee ban threatens the most noble American tradition: welcoming persecuted people. In Connecticut, we’ve seen an outpouring of compassion, engagement, and philanthropy. Our neighbors see how refugees enrich our lives, revitalize our communities, and strengthen our economy. Welcoming refugees is an opportunity to renew our commitment to core American values.

“They told us that when I get to America, nobody can judge you because of your skin, your language … You can even celebrate your culture!” said one refugee interviewed by New Haven’s Collective Consciousness Theater (CCT). Based on hours of interviews with refugees, CCT produced “Stories of a New America,” a play that engages audiences in the experiences of refugees who are making a new home in Connecticut.