Here We Stand: An Open Letter to National, State, and Local Leaders

January 15, 2025

We, the undersigned members of Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a coalition that represents hundreds of thousands of refugees and their millions of supporters across the United States, believes that everyone deserves a safe place to call home and an opportunity to seek protection from violence and persecution. Our coalition works toward a just world in which people forced to flee their homes have agency, access to safety, and opportunity to thrive. We write to unequivocally express our solidarity with refugees and forcibly displaced populations and urge our national, state, and local leaders to sustain our nation’s capacity to welcome. 

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have expressed their support for refugees and forcibly displaced populations, including business leaders, religious leaders, Members of Congress, governors, state legislators, mayors, national security experts, and former generals and admirals from all across the country with strong and growing support among U.S. voters. They have called for preserving longstanding U.S. values of welcome and inclusion. RCUSA implores the incoming administration to listen to these voices and to continue operating humanitarian programs in a manner consistent with these values.

Safe pathways for migration and protection strengthen our national security by promoting peace and geopolitical stability. Furthermore, new Americans buttress our economic prosperity. The U.S. resettlement program drives our nation’s economic growth and revitalizes communities; refugees pay taxes, open businesses, create jobs, buy homes, and utilize their expertise, skills, inventive ideas, and resilience to contribute to American communities. A 2024 Department of Health and Human Services report found a positive net fiscal impact from refugees and asylees of $123.8 billion over a fifteen-year period.

It is our collective responsibility as Americans to welcome those most in need, offer refuge, and lift up our shared humanity, and we urge the incoming Trump administration to continue this legacy without hesitation. The U.S. refugee and asylum systems were formalized through landmark bipartisan legislation with the Refugee Act of 1980. The deep support for refugees and newcomers remains steadfast today, as we welcome forcibly displaced people through the U.S. resettlement, asylum, special immigrant visa, and humanitarian parole programs, as well as complementary pathways – all forms of relief that save lives.

We call on our national, state, and local elected leaders to affirm our nation’s proud legacy in establishing and bolstering life-saving programs that have been lifted up as a standard of excellence around the world.

Sincerely,

Alight

ANAR

Bethany Christian Services

Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Center for Victims of Torture

Chin Association of Maryland 

CHIRLA

Church World Service

Climate Refugees 

Community Sponsorship Hub

ECDC

Episcopal Migration Ministries

Every Campus A Refuge

HIAS

Human Rights First

International Refugee Assistance Project

International Rescue Committee

Islamic Relief USA

Migration and Refugee Services, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

National Partnership for New Americans

Oxfam America

Rainbow Railroad

Refugee Congress

Refugees International 

RefugePoint

Talent Beyond Boundaries

USAHello

Welcoming America

Women’s Refugee Commission

World Relief

RCUSA is a diverse coalition advocating for just and humane laws and policies, and the promotion of dialogue and communication among government, civil society, and those who need protection and welcome. Individual RCUSA members do not all address all refugee-related issues, nor do all individual members approach common refugee-related issues identically.

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