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Taif Jany, Director of Policy & Practice Sixteen years ago, I was standing in a long line on a hot summer day waiting to file for refugee resettlement at a UN center in Damascus, Syria after fleeing the sectarian civil war in Iraq. Earlier this year, I presented a new research report on reimagining what the…
Washington, DC – Immigration is a Black issue. Undoing anti-Blackness is an immigration issue. Whether targeted by policies directly, or by disparate enforcement, Black immigrants are forced to reckon with US anti-Blackness. But anti-Blackness in immigration cannot be solved by creating better policy alone, this is a systemic issue – present in the communities that…
I flip the last pancake on the breakfast plate of my youngest daughter, as my other hand dials into my conference call. I throw some oranges on the table, and I walk into our home office to have a conversation with a coworker. On this call, we discuss how to provide community support and social…
Late Friday night, President Trump signed the Presidential Determination for FY2020, setting the refugee admissions cap to the devastatingly low number of 18,000 [RCUSA responds here]. Recognizing the toll significantly devastating news continues to play on our global community, Refugee Council USA, along with partner organizations, submits this open letter to refugees waiting for relief around the…
Yasmine Taeb Yasmine Taeb first stepped foot on U.S. soil at the age of seven. She along with her mother, two brothers and sister crossed the border without authorization from Tijuana into southern California, and while their nighttime crossing was traumatic, it did not come with the forced separation of children and parents or the…
By Mary Giovagnoli RCUSA Executive Director My husband was making Thanksgiving pies very late on Sunday night to send to family in Wisconsin. As he went to put an apple pie in the oven, something went pop, and the oven stopped working. We turned to our neighbors, who graciously allowed us to use their oven,…
Refugee Stories: In Their Own Voices Podcast A new podcast in Texas features the stories of refugees in North Texas and the community organizations and volunteers that welcome them. In the first episode, we meet Ghazwan Abdullah, his wife Huda, and their 11-year-old daughter Hiba who are Iraqi refugees resettled in Dallas, Texas. Along the…
The RCUSA 2016 Local Congressional Visit Toolkit discusses how you can help increase resources for refugee protection & resettlement with sections on: Current Update: Refugee Funding for 2017 & The Need for Action; Meet with Your Senators and Representatives; Action Alert: Call Congress; Sample Letter to Send your Members of Congress; Current Legislation that Would…