Goals
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) states that USRAP's mission is "to offer resettlement opportunities to people overseas who are of special humanitarian concern while protecting national security and combating fraud." The goals of USRAP are: *Arranging refugees' placement by ensuring that approved refugees are sponsored and offered appropriate assistance upon arrival in the U.S. *Providing refugees with necessities and core services during their initial resettlement period in the U.S. *Promoting refugee self-sufficiency through employment as soon as possible after arrival in the U.S. in coordination with other refugee service and assistance programs. Every year, immigration law requires that the Executive Branch officials: * Review the refugee situation or emergency refugee situation. * Project the extent of possible participation of the United States in resettling refugees. * Discuss reasons for believing that the proposed admission of refugees is justified by humanitarian concerns, grave humanitarian concerns, or is otherwise in the national interest."History
"Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a refugee is a ersonwho, generally, has experienced past persecution or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Individuals who meet this definition may be considered refugee status under Section 207 of the INA if they are outside the United States, or asylum status under Section 208 if they are already in the United States. Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980, which incorporated this definition of refugee into the INA, the United States has admitted more than 3.1 million refugees."Post WWII to the end of the Cold War
Various groups worked to assist refugees who had fled nations such as Germany, Italy, and Spain. Among those in that initial group of refugees were2011 to today
Today, USRAP comprises professional staffs from various agencies. These groups both assist refugees with local integration, and ensure that they have access to available services. Each year the President of the United States—after consulting with Congress and the appropriate agencies—determines the designated nationalities and processing priorities for refugee resettlement for the upcoming year. As of 2011, USRAP sponsored over 56,000 refugees in the U.S. Today, USRAP comprises professional staffs from both religious and secular agencies working together in local communities. These groups both assist refugees with local integration and ensure that they have access to available services.Trump's Executive Orders ("Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the U.S.")
On January 27, 2017, PresidentNumbers
The refugee limit for fiscal year (FY) 2022 is 125,000. "Although historically the U.S. has resettled more refugees than any other country, its resettlement program has not kept up with increase of the global refugee population that has increased by about 50 percent over the past five years. In FY 2021, the number of refugees resettled was the lowest since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. While there were approximately 26 million refugees worldwide as of fiscal year (FY) 2020, the U.S. currently resettles just a small fraction of them. Less than 1 percent of the total number of displaced people in the world have been resettled to one of 37 current resettlement countries each year.First Trump presidency (2017-2021)
In FY 2016, the U.S. admitted nearly 85,000 refugees, a number that declined to fewer than 54,000 refugees in FY 2017, the lowest number in a decade, after President Trump reduced the cap on refugee admissions via executive order. In FY 2018, the president further reduced the refugee admission cap to 45,000, the lowest since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980. For 2019, the administration cut the number of admissions even further to 30,000. For FY 2020, the administration further cut the number of refugee admissions to 18,000. However, the cap represents the maximum number of refugees that may be resettled in a year and the Trump administration only resettled 11,814 people in FY 2020. On September 30, 2020, the Trump Administration sent a report to Congress proposing a further-lower ceiling of 15,000 refugees for admission to the U.S in FY 2021. The Presidential Determination officially setting the refugee ceiling was issued on October 28, 2020 for 15,000 refugees to be resettled in FY 2021.Biden presidency (2021-2025)
While President Biden increased the FY 2021 ceiling to 62,500 in May 2021 and set the FY 2022 ceiling at 125,000, refugee resettlement infrastructure remains depleted and the administration has struggled to reach these targets in terms of actual refugees resettled".Second Trump presidency (2025-Present)
On January 20, 2025 President Trump signed Executive Order 14155: "Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program" Executive order. This executive order states that: * Entry into the United States of refugees under the USRAP be suspended. This suspension shall take effect at 12:01 am eastern standard time on January 27, 2025. * The Secretary of Homeland Security shall suspend decisions on applications for refugee status. * Within 90 days, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit a report to the President through the Homeland Security Advisor on whether the entry of refugees under the USRAP would be in the interests of the United States. And every 90 days thereafter until the President determines that resumption of the USRAP is in the interests of the United States. * Executive Order 14013 of February 4, 2021, is hereby revoked.Impact
There is no evidence that refugees to the United States have an impact on crime rates. Studies show that refugees to the United States have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and native welfare. A 2018 study in the ''Economic Journal'' found that Vietnamese refugees to the United States had a positive impact on American exports, as exports to Vietnam grew most in US states with larger Vietnamese populations. A 2017 paper by Evans and Fitzgerald found that refugees to the United States pay "$21,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits over their first 20 years in the U.S." An internal study by the Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration, which was suppressed and not shown to the public, found that refugees to the United States brought in $63 billion more in government revenues than they cost the government. According toProgram structure
Government entities
USRAP is not run by any one agency of the federal government; rather, it is a collaborative effort among many different agencies and departments of the federal government as well as a number of nonprofit organizations. According to the U.S. Department of State website, three entities make up the federal arm of the USRAP program: USCIS, which is part of theU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
USCIS is responsible for activities that could be termed the "legal side" of USRAP operations. It processes applications for refugee admission to the United States and applications for permanent residency. It also issues documents that permit refugees to return to the United States after traveling abroad. Although USCIS is involved in humanitarian efforts by virtue of its inclusion in USRAP, the organization plays more of an incidental processing role than a humanitarian one.Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
As part of the U.S. Department of State, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration is primarily responsible for USRAP's operations abroad. According to the Bureau's website, its roughly 130 staff members perform primarily pass-through operations where they do not work directly with refugees. Rather, they work through other organizations such as the International Rescue Committee and other various intergovernmental organizations so as to provide services to refugees. The Bureau also processes applications for refugee resettlement to the United States.Office of Refugee Resettlement
Whereas the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration primarily handles the foreign-based portions of USRAP and USCIS works with admissions and legal issues, the Office of Refugee Resettlement "provide new populations with the opportunity to maximize their potential in the United States." The Office of Refugee Resettlement plays a particularly important role within USRAP. Bringing refugees into the United States and processing their documents is quite a different thing from assisting those same refugees in living and working in a new and foreign culture. This is the task of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.Non-profit affiliates
Nonprofits play a special role in USRAP. There are nine nonprofits appointed to work with the nation in either refugee referrals or in refugee resettlement. The ten non-profits currently working with USRAP are listed below: *Bethany Christian Services * Church World Service *Episcopal Migration Ministries *Ethiopian Community Development Council * HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) *Church World Service
Church World Service works with eight different denominations, theHIAS
HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)Refugee Resettlement – U. S. :: Hebrew Immigrant Aid SocietyBudget and funding
During FY 2011, USRAP received $302 million from the federal government to fund its programs. That number will increase by over 25 percent (to $417 million) in FY 2012 and then drop back down to $310 million in FY 2013. According to the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, some of these monies are used to " undten public and private non-profit organizations to help provide initial services and assist refugees to achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible."Refugee eligibility
According to USRAP, "A refugee is someone who has fled from his or her home country and cannot return because he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group." Once a refugee has fled their country into a neighboring country, there is an intensive process before they can be legally admitted into the United States of America. While the process aims to take about eight months to a year, the reality is that it takes much longer. Once a refugee has been admitted to the United States, it is the responsibility of the sponsoring organization to help them adapt to their new life. It is the hope that they will be enfolded into their community and become an asset to the country.Services
Cash assistance
As touched on above, much of the literature on USRAP challenges the efficacy of the program's cash assistance efforts. A recent study conducted byEmployment
The purpose of cash assistance is to help refugees find employment. This goal, however, is frequently not achieved. "…The cash assistance received was not enough to cover basic expenses and often ran out long before employment was secured." One of the main issues with refugee employment is that there is simply not enough time or money to support a thorough job search. The time allotted for support is eight months, however, the paper quoted above claimed that in reality the support lasts six months or less. This lack of time and funding results in a push for quick, insufficient employment rather than full, sustaining careers. Refugees are pushed toward short-term jobs, simply to get them employed. This ignores individual refugees abilities, past education, and professional experience. The reason behind this push is that the goal is not that of long-term self-sustainability, but rather of self-sustainability by the end of the "eight"-month refugee assistance. The result is that the program turns into a machine bent on churning out integrated refugees. This method is inefficient because more refugees must then rely on the government over the long-term through welfare programs. These short-term jobs have above minimum wage pay, but the average wage per hour for full-time workers obtained by refugees within four months of arrival was $8.67 in 2009.U.S. Government Accountability OfficeEnglish language
If a refugee cannot speak English, their job possibilities decrease. "The ability to speak English can greatly facilitate a refugee's chances of finding employment." USRAP does provide English language classes. There is, however, a wide array of problems with these classes: inadequate facilities, no longevity, poor teacher quality, and lack of transportation to classes. Because of these issues, most refugees are not getting the English language training they need to achieve self-sustainability. The literature focused mainly on the problems with facilities and transportation. According to Table 2, 58 percent of the incoming refugees could not speak English. This indicates that there is a great need for English language training among the refugees.Healthcare
In addition to employment assistance, USRAP is also responsible for the health, both mental and physical, of refugees entering the United States. According to our bylaws, refugee resettlement agencies are "... authorized to fund social services projects designed to provide, where specific needs have been shown and recognized by the Director, health (including mental health) services, social services, educational and other services." This responsibility becomes a problem when a high percentage of entering refugees have health issues. As the literature points out, this is a growing reality for the United States, "The number of refugees with chronic untreated medical and mental health conditions continues to grow. Needy refugees who do not qualify for Medicaid are limited to up to eight months of Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA)." There are reasons for why so many refugees suffer from poor mental and physical health: Because the United States has admitted an increased number of refugees who have spent many years living in difficult conditions, such as refugee camps, a larger proportion of recently arrived refugees have health and other issues that make it difficult for them to work and achieve self-sufficiency. Because of these changes in refugee populations, esettlement programsfaced difficulties in estimating the costs of serving newly arrived refugees, which, in turn, has affected the agency's unobligated balances. As one article posited, this rise in mental illness among refugees calls for better training for psychologists in working with diverse populations: "The diversity of the refugee population in the United States requires practicing psychologists to respond by adapting clinical services to meet their mental health needs." Hopefully with better training, psychologists of refugees will be able to better address their specific health needs. USRAP has an obligation to improve health services for the incoming refugee population.Current issues
U.S. foreign policy issues
At times, United States foreign policy has had negative implications for the lives of the refugees USRAP aims to serve. Although official United States procedure states that foreign policy should have no impact on refugee admissions, this has not always been the case. For example, on September 11, 2001, a number of Afghan refugees were scheduled to arrive in the United States. Not surprisingly, those plans did not move forward. This use of refugee admissions programs to further national interests is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Legislation regarding refugee admissions written after World War II excluded large numbers of refugees (including ninety percent of Jewish refugees) from being eligible for resettlement in the United States. This treatment was justified by some because of fears concerning the refugees' possible impacts on the American economy. During the Cold War, the United States used refugee admissions policy largely as a propaganda tool in an attempt to discredit communism by granting asylum to those seeking to escape communist nations. However, the interplay between United States refugee admissions and foreign policy is not entirely one-sided. A 2012 USRAP report to Congress states that United States involvement in discussions and actions concerning refugee resettlement have given the United States the opportunity to advance human-rights as well as influence other countries to be more open to accepting refugees. The example given in the report is that of Bhutanese refugees. Because the United States offered resettlement, other countries demonstrated a greater willingness to accept refugees as well.Local government issues
Along with its foreign policy problems, the literature points out that USRAP has had issues with its domestic policies as well. A report, ''Abandoned Upon Arrival: Implications for Refugees and Local Communities Burdened by a U.S. Resettlement System That is not Working'', points out that local communities have confronted many challenges due to refugees resettlement. In the study, seven main findings were reported concerning the local resettlement communities. First, the federal government uses "faith-based groups," for refugee placement.Report to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,Administrative issues
Program fragmentation and lack of cohesion among different agencies produces challenges unnecessary burdens for those who are intended to benefit from the program.Failure to share information
Many of these problems associated with USRAP begin with a lack of information sharing between the agencies involved. Much of the information gathered from refugees is not shared between agencies to ensure that the placement meets the needs of the refugee. For the most part, this information is only used to assess refugee admissibility into the resettlement program. At no point during the resettlement process does a government employee or contracted party have the responsibility to investigate and report "the presence of a needs-related vulnerability for the purposes of ensuring post-arrival assistance. Instead, such information is only gathered to help support the individual's persecution claim." Similarly, medical examinations and interviews of refugees performed by the USCIS overseas are not used to determine the health and resettlement needs of the refugee. Rather, this information is used to assess the admissibility of the refugee. In fact, resettlement agencies must make placement decisions before they even receive the medical records of refugees. One of the most crucial factors to the success of refugees is where they are placed in United States. Even though the most vulnerable populations are being targeted for resettlement, these vulnerabilities are not being communicated to the placing agencies. No structured system exists in USRAP for the collecting and distributing of refugee information for planning purposes. This failure to share information down the resettlement chain hurts the resettled refugees and the success of USRAP.Failure to coordinate/monitor refugees
Because critical information is not always considered when a placement decision is made, it is not surprising that many refugees leave the locations of original placement to look for better opportunities elsewhere. In many instances, refugees will seek out communities of fellow country-of-origin nationals. Current legislation recognizes this secondary migration as a "natural and expected phenomenon." However, there are no tools or tracking system in place to manage this phenomenon. USRAP takes no measures in anticipating foreseeable trends in secondary migration by refugees. When refugees move, they get lost in the system and their federal assistance money does not follow them. Consequently, these secondary migration refugees lose out on a part of their eight months of cash and medical treatment.Recommendations
"Refugees seeking resettlement to the U.S. experience major barriers that cause delays, confusion, and, ultimately, a failure to fairly adjudicate their claims for protection." "Improving the capacity, efficiency, and transparency of USRAP this year will ensure the program can continue to be a life-saving protection tool for refugees, advance U.S. strategic interests overseas more fully, and strengthen the resiliency of local communities across the country." Some recommendations for USRAP include (1) expanding its adjudication capacity, (2) enabling efficient interview and vetting processes, and (3) ensuring due process and transparency. "Expand Adjudication Capacity by onboarding additional refugee officers; scheduling regular circuit rides in advance of Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23); eliminating backlogs; addressing family reunification; and expanding private sponsorship, domestic capacity, and access for climate-displaced people. Enable Efficient Interview and Vetting Processes by expanding the use of video technology; reversing harmful and ineffective vetting practices; and establishing oversight mechanisms and high-level coordination of all aspects of USRAP. Ensure Due Process and Transparency by publishing reviews, reports, and policies relevant to refugee processing and allowing access to counsel for key aspects of refugee processing."References
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