Episcopal Migration Ministries Joins in Awareness Campaign for Refugees
Episcopal News Service. May 18, 1995 [95093]
(ENS) Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) has joined with two other church-based refugee resettlement agencies to launch a Campaign for Refugee Protection to combat federal anti-refugee legislation.
Along with Church World Service (CWS) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), EMM hopes to renew the nation's commitment to helping uprooted people and to "uphold refuge for victims of persecution," according to a letter announcing the campaign. An immediate target is the Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act of 1995, which, if approved by Congress, would cut refugee admissions by more than half to a ceiling of 50,000 a year.
Refugee admissions to the United States are currently at 110,000 and are expected to drop to 90,000 in 1996. The worldwide refugee population under care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, meanwhile, has increased from seven million 10 years ago to 16.2 million today.
In the letter announcing the campaign, EMM Director Richard Parkins and directors of the other two agencies called the threat to refugees "imminent and acute."
Churches and church organizations that have a tradition of witnessing on behalf of refugees and immigrants must "bring the moral authority of our faith traditions to help maintain hospitality for those seeking safety and protection in the United States," the three wrote. "We must act before it is too late, and our time is running out."
"Our goal as churches is not to ensure a certain number of resettled refugees in the U.S., but to underscore that, within an unprecedented world refugee population of more than 22 million and rising, one can logically assume that more than 50,000 refugees a year will need U.S. resettlement," said Parkins.
"A ceiling indicates that we are closing our doors, signaling to other countries that they too can pull in the welcome mat," he said. "The message sent to refugees is that they are without hope. The churches cannot allow this to happen."
The bill before Congress, introduced in January by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), lumps "U.S. policy on legal, humanitarian refugee admissions in with extremely restrictive legislation designed to respond to Americans' fears about illegal immigration," said Elizabeth G. Ferris, director of the CWS immigration and refugee program.
"What churches need to remember and need to voice is that these issues are not just about resettlement numbers, budgets and institutions. They are about life-and-death situations for individuals," said Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS executive director.
Parkins called the joint effort of the three agencies "symbolically very important" because of the wide constituencies they represent. While the three agencies often cooperate in actual resettlements, "this is the first time we have so consciously pulled ourselves into a single effort" to raise awareness of refugee issues, he said.
Dorothy Ivey of Washington D.C., a former resettlement officer with the Washington office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will coordinate the campaign. She is contacting local churches and agency affiliates to encourage a grassroots effort, with a particular focus on the states whose senators will play a key role in designing the legislation.
"We hope to get people to weigh in on this issue other than just those of us who are institutionally invested in it," Parkins said.
Beyond the immediate challenge of the Simpson legislation, Parkins said the campaign is designed as an ongoing program to balance negative impressions of refugees. Other anti-refugee legislation may be presented in the future, he said, warning of "rough sledding ahead."
Refugee resettlement speaks to the heart of the Gospel of caring for the needy and dispossessed, Parkins said. "Even if were not economically or socially viable, we would still do it," he said.