Virginia’s door is open

History demands that the commonwealth welcome those seeking refuge

Gov. Ralph Northam wants Virginia to live up to the high ideals he expressed eloquently in his speech in July commemorating the 400th anniversary of Virginia’s General Assembly, the first elected assembly in America.

Too often, politicians say all the right things for the cameras and the crowds, and then proceed to act a lot less honorably. Northam, though, has let the administration of President Donald Trump know that he meant exactly what he said that day in Jamestown about diversity and refugees and what America is all about.

Northam, who faced justifiable criticism earlier this year over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook, spoke frankly in Jamestown about what he called “the paradox of Virginia, of America, and of our representative democracy.”

We have the right ideals of freedom and representative government, he said, but in Virginia and in the nation, we have not always lived up to them. Northam addressed the complexities of our shared history as he noted that just weeks after that first General Assembly, a ship arrived carrying captives from Africa. Democracy spread from Virginia, but so did slavery. The new colony also failed to extend its cherished freedoms to the Native Americans who had lived in Virginia long before any English settlers arrived.

Northam made a strong statement supporting the ideal of America as a welcoming home for those in need who seek freedom and opportunity here. Those same values sounded even better late in November when Northam expressed them in a strong letter to Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state.

The letter was in response to an executive order President Donald Trump issued late in September offering states and localities new power to close the door to refugee resettlements. Trump’s order requires state and local governments to give written consent for refugees to arrive, and thus it allows them to ban refugees. A state, for example, could say no to refugees even if some cities wanted to welcome them. A city could say no even if a state is willing.

Details of how the new arrangement would work are being hashed out, and some resettlement agencies have filed a lawsuit. Critics say the Trump administration is trying to stir fear of refugees and halt resettlement programs. Trump’s antirefugee rhetoric and cutting of resettlement totals to their lowest in four decades serve as compelling evidence.

Northam’s letter made it clear that Virginia wants no part of any ban. In fact, he said, as the administration has been slashing the number of refugees allowed into the country, Virginia’s numbers have also dropped, so the commonwealth has room for more.

According to data from the Virginia Department of Social Services, which administers the commonwealth’s Refugee Resettlement Program, fewer than 14,000 people have come since 2015 fleeing persecution. The largest number come from Afghanistan, Iraq and Congo; only 325 people from Syria have relocated here.

We’d like to help them, he wrote. He noted the “ideals upon which this country was founded, of liberty and freedom,” and said that if we are to promote those ideals around the world, we also “must practice what we preach” and allow people in need to find them here. He mentioned refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan who helped the U.S. military and who hope to resettle in Virginia to be near Washington.

We should treat refugees in need “as we would wish to be treated,” the governor wrote.

Northam said no to the Trump administration’s shameful effort to close the door to refugees, and he set the commonwealth on a path toward trying to help those in need find a way to settle here. Those actions speak even louder than his speech last summer.

Virginians can be proud of the leading role this state played as immigrants from Europe built a great democracy in America. And they should, as Northam urged, welcome the next generations who look to the commonwealth, and the nation, for inspiration and as a beacon of freedom around the globe.

Here in Hampton Roads, we should make it clear that our doors are open.