Support Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions
Urge President Biden to immediately sign a revised refugee resettlement goal for FY21. Crucially, the President has not yet issued an emergency Presidential Determination on refugee admissions of 62,500 as was announced. This has caused all kinds of needless delays to the life-saving program. One Eritrean refugee arrived at the airport to welcome his family only to hear that their flight had been cancelled. He's been waiting to be reunited with them for a decade.
The ELCA advocates for increasing the number of refugees admitted year by year based on need.
The Biden administration is expected to take executive action to increase refugee arrivals and begin restoring the resettlement program any day. This is particularly welcome news, in light of strong support for America as a beacon of hope, safety, and refuge — and the previous administration’s dismantling of the program by more than 80%. The Biden administration has already proposed, and met with Congress to discuss increasing the refugee admissions goal for this year to 62,500 to meet the unprecedented and ever evolving refugee crisis.
Now, it is vital that President Biden sign the revised refugee admissions goal for FY21 and restore regional allocations based on vulnerability and need as soon as possible. Each day that passes without this signed executive action is another day that hundreds of particularly vulnerable refugees are forced to wait to be resettled.
We invite faith leaders and faith-based organizations to sign onto a letter to tell the White House to swiftly honor its commitment to restoring and strengthening the refugee resettlement program by immediately signing a new, revised FY21 Presidential Determination of 62,500. Our collective scriptural mandate and our nation’s history and capabilities as a world leader demand no less.
Faith Leaders: Sign on to this important letter by COB Thursday, March 18th. Please fill out this form to sign on: http://bit.ly/RevisedFY21PDFaithLeaders.
Faith Organizations: We invite faith organizations (national, state, and local) to sign on to this important letter by COB Thursday, March 18th. Please fill out this form to sign on: http://bit.ly/RevisedFY21PDFaithOrgs.
