Press Release
Published on July 17, 2019
Washington, D.C.—In response to reports that the Trump Administration plans to set next year’s refugee cap at zero, Human Rights First’s Jennifer Quigley issued the following statement:
The United States is a country built by refugees. To refuse to admit refugees, at a time when there are a record number of people fleeing their homes around the world, is a cowardly, racially-motivated abdication of our nation’s values.
For years this administration has claimed that its immigration policies were designed to “protect” the United States—from fraud, from abuse, from danger at our border. But zeroing out the refugee program, coupled with the near total asylum ban announced this week, show that the real fraud has been perpetuated by this administration.
These policies were always designed with one thing in mind: barring vulnerable people from the freedom and safety of the United States. This is a shameful chapter in our nation’s history.
The United States’ refugee vetting procedures—which include extensive and comprehensive interviews as well as multiple rounds of security vetting with a wide array of U.S. and international intelligence and law enforcement agencies—are widely recognized as the most stringent in the world by former U.S. military leaders and former U.S. national security officials, who have served both Democratic and Republican administrations. Former CIA directors, national security advisors, and secretaries of defense, state, and homeland security have explained that resettling refugees advances U.S. national security interests, and that halting refugee resettlement harms U.S. national security.
