Don't Cut Refugee Resettlement Services

Dear Mr. President, Speaker Boehner, Senators Reid, McConnell, Schumer, Cornyn, Cruz, Landrieu, Coats, Murkowski, Representatives Gowdy, Poe, Jackson Lee, Carter, Culberson, Price, Secretaries Kerry, Johnson, Burwell and Director Negash:

Everyone is alarmed by the escalating number of young people who are arriving at the U.S-Mexico border. It is, indeed, a humanitarian crisis unfolding on a scale that has not been seen for quite a long time. Everyone understands that this crisis is expanding, that the children involved did make the perilous journey to the United States for the fear they felt at home, and everyone wants to do everything that is in the best interest of these children.

Yet, at the same time, we cannot leave others – who are facing equally grave risks – behind. Denying, or reducing, services available to the refugees who arrive from all over the world would place their lives and safety in jeopardy. Many of these refugees have been living in limbo in various refugee camps scattered throughout the globe – some of them have been doing so for decades. The refugee resettlement program is already underfunded. Cutting the funds available to the refugee resettlement program even further would increase their time in limbo and place some in even greater risks; and, here, in the United States – the standard bearer when it comes to refugee resettlement – the cuts will weaken programs that help them make the transition to a new life, in their new homes. These refugees have children as well, and they too have been persecuted and oppressed to the point that they felt it necessary to leave their homes.

There is a crisis taking place at the border. But reprogramming $94 million away from refugee resettlement services will not solve it; in fact, it will create an additional problem when refugees who have already arrived in the United States find that they are being denied services previously available to them.

Instead, the solution lies in increasing the funding available to Office of Refugee Resettlement by $200 million, during the 2015 fiscal year, so that it can effectively meet the needs of both – the children at the border, and the children in the refugee camps.

An estimated 127,000 unaccompanied children are expected to arrive at the border during 2015. At the same time, the number of refugees across the world has exceeded the 50 million mark for the first time since the Second World War. We must ensure that we do not sacrifice the needs of one group in order to serve the needs of the other. We must ensure that all those who seek sanctuary in the U.S are treated equally.

As Emma Lazarus’ poem proclaims, the United States has always welcomed those in most desperate needs – the poor, the tired, the huddled masses, all yearning to breathe free. Let us make sure that we continue to uphold that commitment as efficiently and equitably as possible.

Sincerely,

Ahmed Rafi Omar

Houston, TX.