Columbus resettlement agencies expect about 1,600 refugees in new fiscal year
Columbus’ resettlement agencies are preparing to resettle about 1,600 refugees in the upcoming fiscal year as President Joe Biden announced an increase in the national refugee cap.
On Monday, Biden said he will lift the ceiling for the number of refugees who can enter the country to 125,000 for the new fiscal year that starts in October. The move came after the backlash that Biden received in April when he backed away from his campaign promise to take in more refugees.
Shortly after stating that the record low cap of 15,000 set by former President Donald Trump “remains justified,” Biden boosted the ceiling for the current fiscal year to 62,500.
In the upcoming fiscal year, the administration will focus specifically on resettling Central Americans, at-risk Afghans, LGBTQI+ refugees and other high-priority populations such as Uyghurs, Hong Kong refugees and Burmese dissidents, according to Biden’s latest report.
In Columbus, the two resettlement agencies –– Community Refugee and Immigration Services and US Together –– are expecting to receive 959 and 600 refugees in the fiscal year 2022, respectively. This fiscal year, both groups combined received a total of 188 refugees.
“We are very excited about the administration’s announcement about the new cap,” said Nadia Kasvin, co-founder and director at US Together. “We expected it to happen, and now we urge the administration to sign a presidential determination as soon as possible, with so many people around the world waiting to rebuild their lives in a safe environment.”
Agencies also expressed that they are hoping for more support from both local communities and Congress to meet the needs of new arrivals. They said that they are especially concerned about the availability of affordable housing and how quickly they have to get new staff members trained and onboarded.
In recent weeks, tens of thousands of Afghans have tried to flee Taliban control. Notably, the new cap is unlikely to impact the group as most of them are not categorized as refugees.
Under a separate federal initiative called the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, Columbus’ two agencies are expecting to resettle 345 Afghan humanitarian parolees who will arrive in Columbus in the next six months. Angie Plummer, executive director at Community Refugee and Immigration Services, said she hopes Congress will authorize more assistance to this population.
“I hope that Congress will authorize us to extend some of our existent social service programs, like employment placement support, to Afghan humanitarian parolees,” Plummer said. “If Congress would permit parolees to become permanent residents, ‘green card’ holders, it would provide more stability to this population.”
On Tuesday, the Refugee Advocacy Lab — an initiative co-founded by several national organizations —published a letter urging the Biden administration to ensure that the increased cap will be reflected in actual resettlement numbers. The letter was signed by more than 300 state and local elected officials from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“While acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic has made travel difficult, I don’t think that there was a kind of singular focus or an all-hands-on-deck effort by the Biden administration to resettle more refugees,” said Sunil Varghese, policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New-york based organization that co-founded the Refugee Advocacy Lab.
“There’s so much that the Trump administration wrecked over the last four years on the refugee program,” he continued. “It’s important to look forward and make sure that we hold this administration accountable with not just the goals that they set, but actually getting there.”
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for the Dispatch. ycheng@dispatch.com @Chengyilun