RCUSA Statement to the 2025 Global Refugee Forum Progress Review on Behalf of U.S. Civil Society

At the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, RCUSA pledged to support the creation of a Group of Refugee Councils, mobilize our coalition around advocacy priorities, and to partner with refugee leaders by promoting leadership training opportunities for those with lived experience of forced displacement. We have been and will continue this work.

Any attempt to withdraw from or circumvent international and domestic refugee law undermines global security, humanitarian and moral interests, and our respect for due process.

Over 2.5 million refugees are in need of resettlement in the coming year. Yet only a fraction of those are ever resettled.

By every metric, refugees have enriched communities and made our countries stronger. Refugees bring enormous economic and sociocultural benefits to the communities where they resettle and are able to rebuild lives with a sense of permanence.

Everyone deserves a safe place to call home – without fear of refoulement or punitive actions that push communities into crisis.

The U.S. government has historically been a global humanitarian leader that has served as a lighthouse, a beacon that leads the way to strengthen access to durable solutions and expand opportunities to safeguard lives. And yet, this year we have witnessed policy after policy, action by action, by the U.S. government, attacking the U.S. resettlement and asylum programs –

By indefinitely banning refugees, only resettling a very narrow set of arrivals that is racially discriminatory, suspending all asylum decisions, reviewing all refugees who arrived during the previous U.S. administration, setting new record-low refugee admissions goal, grinding visa programs to a halt including for Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission, issuing and likely expanding a travel ban, among so many other actions – all the while demonstrating a pattern of violating U.S. laws.

This United States, the United States of today, is setting a dangerous precedent that weakens – not strengthens – our global security and U.S. economic interests. U.S. government officials’ rhetoric fuels xenophobia, legitimizes discriminatory policies, and reverberates far beyond U.S. borders—especially in countries where anti-refugee politics are already on the rise. We urge resettlement countries globally, including the United States, to continue advocating for robust support of refugee resettlement programs.

U.S. civil society is here to stay. We are resolute in our commitment to welcome newcomers and fight for policies that reflect meaningful refugee participation and values of compassion, hospitality, and welcome – without discrimination.

We urge civil society in other countries to stand firm in resistance to any pressure from States seeking to dismantle permanent refugee or asylum protections.

As we approach the upcoming 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, global leaders are called to reaffirm and fulfill our treaty obligations.

Thank you.