Pascrell, Vargas, Cicilline, Gutiérrez, and Jayapal Lead More than 100 Colleagues in Letter Asking White House to Increase Refugee Intake

Letter asks for refugee admission increase to 110,000 from 45,000 for Fiscal Year 2018 and expresses concern over reported program changes

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09), Juan Vargas (CA-51), David N. Cicilline (RI-01), Luis V. Gutiérrez (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) led a letter to President Donald Trump expressing disappointment in his decision to set the presidential determination for refugee admissions at 45,000 for Fiscal Year 2018. The letter urges the President to reconsider his determination and establish a minimum refugee admission level of 110,000 for Fiscal Year 2018. Additionally, the letter expresses concern about the reported changes to the resettlement process to require refugees to meet an assimilation standard. This letter was signed by 121 members of the House of Representatives.

“An unprecedented 65.6 million people across the globe have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of violence, persecution, and war. Approximately 22.5 million of those individuals are refugees, and more than half are children,” the Representatives wrote. “The U.S. has a moral imperative to welcome refugees, who are the most thoroughly vetted people who enter our country. America taking a leadership role during this crisis bolsters our credibility as a nation of immigrants founded on the promise to welcome those seeking a better life.”

For the last three fiscal years Representative Pascrell has led an appropriations letter with his colleagues requesting additional funding to support increased funding for refugee related-accounts. In 2016, Representative Pascrell met with refugee families resettled in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District. In the 114th Congress, Representative Pascrell introduced H.R. 2839, the Domestic Refugee Resettlement Reform and Modernization Act, to help states and non-profit organizations better meet the needs of refugees as they rebuild their lives in the United States.

The full text of the letter to President Trump is below (PDF link).

President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump,

We write to express our deep disappointment in your decision to set the Presidential Determination (PD) for Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2018 at 45,000. We strongly urge you to reconsider this decision and increase the refugee admission level to 110,000 for Fiscal Year 2018. Further, we are alarmed by proposed changes to the resettlement process to require refugees to meet an assimilation standard and ask you brief us at least 30 days before any such changes are made.

As you know, the world is in the midst of the largest refugee crisis in history. An unprecedented 65.6 million people across the globe have been forcibly displaced from their homes because of violence, persecution, and war. Approximately 22.5 million of those individuals are refugees, and more than half are children. The U.S. has a moral imperative to welcome refugees, who are the most thoroughly vetted people who enter our country. America taking a leadership role during this crisis bolsters our credibility as a nation of immigrants founded on the promise to welcome those seeking a better life.

As both Republican and Democratic administrations have confirmed, the United States screens refugees more stringently than any other traveler allowed to enter the United States. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has safely and successfully resettled more than three million refugees from around the world to American communities across the country since 1975. Refugee applicants must undergo a robust and thorough screening process that takes roughly two years and involves our nation’s top security and counter-terror experts. The exhaustive vetting process includes checking fingerprints and other biometric data against terrorist and criminal databases and multiple interviews through multiple Federal agencies.

Since the enactment of the 1980 Refugee Act, the average annual goal for refugee admissions has been 95,000. In Fiscal Year 2016, the U.S. resettled approximately 85,000 refugees, and the Presidential Determination for Fiscal Year 2017 was 110,000. During the worst refugee crisis in the world, these resettlement numbers pale in comparison to the support our allies are providing and our moral leadership commands. Since Executive Order 13769 was signed, the number of refugees coming to the United States each month has dropped precipitously. Australia, Norway, Canada, Sweden, and Finland all accept more refugees per capita than the United States, with Canada pledging to accept 300,000 refugees in 2017. Failing to do our part to alleviate this global crisis undermines our leadership, diplomacy, and national security.

In addition to the U.S.’s moral responsibility, supporting our allies and partners, whose resources are being strained by hosting large numbers of refugees, promotes security and stability at home and abroad. Twenty national security leaders, including Henry Kissinger, Michael Chertoff, Madeleine Albright, and Leon Panetta wrote a letter in 2015 noting that “resettlement initiatives help advance U.S. national security interests by supporting the stability of our allies and partners that are struggling to host large numbers of refugees.”[1] By doing more to host and assist refugees, the United States would help safeguard the stability of nations like Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, which are hosting the vast majority of Syrian refugees. This can help reduce regional instability and potential for conflict and terrorism. Additionally, severely limiting the number of refugees the U.S. admits perpetuates extremist organizations’ false narrative of a war between Islam and the West.

In order to make clear that the United States rejects this worldview, we must bolster our refugee program by supporting the world’s most vulnerable people, without discriminating based on religion or nationality. As a nation of immigrants, our country has a long history of welcoming newcomers of all different backgrounds. Any efforts to require refugees meet an assimilation standard misunderstands the purpose of our resettlement program which is to assist the most vulnerable. This is especially true if no additional assistance is provided to ensure refugees are successfully integrated into the fabric of our nation.

The 45,000 PD for Fiscal Year 2018 is woefully insufficient when compared to the millions of people who have been forced to flee their home countries. Establishing a PD of 45,000 is the lowest refugee admissions goal in our nation’s history. This would prevent tens of thousands of people from enriching American communities while seeking safety, protection, and an opportunity to provide a better future for themselves and their families in the United States.

The current global humanitarian crisis requires strong American leadership. To reflect that, we request that you reconsider and increase the PD for refugee admissions level to 110,000 for Fiscal Year 2018. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to working together with you and your Administration on this critical issue.

Sincerely,

CC:      The Honorable Rex Tillerson, Secretary, State Department
The Honorable Elaine Duke, Acting Secretary, Homeland Security Department
The Honorable Mark Green, Administrator, Agency for International Development
The Honorable H.R. McMaster, Assistant to the President, National Security Advisor

________________________________________

[1] Letter from Madeleine K. Albright, Henry A. Kissinger, et. al. to members of Congress (Dec. 1, 2015) available at: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/FormerNatSecOfficialsLetterRefugees.pdf

Signatories:

Eddie Bernice Johnson
Donald S. Beyer, Jr.
Earl Blumenauer
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Suzanne Bonamici
Robert A. Brady
Anthony Brown
Michael Capuano
Salud Carbajal
Tony Cárdenas
André Carson
Judy Chu
David N. Cicilline
Katherine Clark
Yvette D. Clarke
Steve Cohen
John Conyers, Jr.
J. Luis Correa
Joe Courtney
Joe Crowley
Elijah E. Cummings
Danny K. Davis
Peter DeFazio
Diana DeGette
John K. Delaney
Mark DeSaulnier
Ted Deutch
Debbie Dingell
Lloyd Doggett
Michael Doyle
Keith Ellison
Eliot L. Engel
Anna G. Eshoo
Adriano Espaillat
Elizabeth H. Esty
Dwight Evans
Bill Foster
Lois Frankel
Ruben Gallego
John Garamendi
Jimmy Gomez
Josh Gottheimer
Gene Green
Raúl Grijalva
Luis V. Gutiérrez
Colleen Hanabusa
Alcee L. Hastings
Brian Higgins
James Himes
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Pramila Jayapal
Hakeem Jeffries
Marcy Kaptur
William R. Keating
Robin L. Kelly
Joseph P. Kennedy
Ro Khanna
Daniel T. Kildee
James Langevin
Rick Larsen
John B. Larson
Brenda L. Lawrence
Barbara Lee
Sander  Levin
Ted W. Lieu
Zoe Lofgren
Alan Lowenthal
Stephen Lynch
Carolyn B. Maloney
Doris Matsui
Betty McCollum
James P. McGovern
Gwen Moore
Seth Moulton
Jerrold Nadler
Grace Napolitano
Donald Norcross
Beto O’Rourke
Frank Pallone, Jr.
Jimmy Panetta
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Donald Payne, Jr.
Ed Perlmutter
Scott Peters
Chellie Pingree
Mark Pocan
Jared Polis
David Price
Mike Quigley
Jamie Raskin
Ben Ray Lujan
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Bobby Rush
Tim Ryan
John Sarbanes
Jan Schakowsky
Adam Schiff
Bradley S. Schneider
Robert C. “Bobby” Scott
José E. Serrano
Carol Shea-Porter
Albio Sires
Louise Slaughter
Adam Smith
Darren Soto
Eric Swalwell
Mark Takano
Dina Titus
Paul Tonko
Norma J. Torres
Niki Tsongas
Juan Vargas
Marc Veasey
Filemon Vela
Nydia Velázquez
Peter J. Visclosky
Timothy Walz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Bonnie Watson Coleman
Peter Welch
John Yarmuth