New program allows American citizens to sponsor refugees fleeing violence and oppression

Amna Nawaz:

The State Department announced a new program to help facilitate refugees coming to and settling in the United States.

It's called Welcome Corps and aims to empower private American citizens to sponsor refugees. Since the 1980s, the number of refugees admitted to the United States has fluctuated. After the 9/11 attacks, numbers plunged, but then rose again over time. They dropped again during the Trump administration, but have been rising since Joe Biden became president.

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah is the president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. She joins me now.

Krish, welcome back.

Let's talk about this new program from the Biden administration. They say they aim to mobilize 10,000 Americans to sponsor 5,000 refugees in the first year. They call it the boldest innovation undertaken in our approach to refugee resettlement in over four decades.

Do you agree with that?

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service: I guess it's throwback Thursday because, in many ways, this pilot reverts to how refugee resettlement was done before it was professionalized into a federal program in 1980.

Prior to that, it was faith-based organizations, private citizens who came together and supported refugees through private sponsorship. The refugee program has obviously been refined since then. But community involvement and public-private partnership is really the core of our work even today, even before this announcement.

What we find is that our volunteers become our most enthusiastic ambassadors and advocates. So it is nice to see the administration recognize the generosity of the Americans spirit, and bring more people into the work of welcome.

But, that said, I do think there are a few things to keep in mind to be realistic about the promise of this new program. There are things that private citizens can do well or even better than anyone else, organizing a donation drive, helping furnish departments.

But there is a risk that sponsors may not be fully prepared or equipped for what oftentimes is complicated, challenging work, whether we're talking about addressing the trauma that refugees have experienced, or navigating the paperwork and bureaucracy of helping a family enroll their kids in school.

So we just want to make sure that these sponsors are prepared for what's in store and that they're vetted. So, we're excited about the program. But, obviously, we need to be realistic about what it will deliver.

Amna Nawaz:

Krish, it doesn't sound as if you have a lot of faith that this program is going to make a significant difference. It sounds like it's welcome, but you don't think it'll have a huge impact.

And I should also point out your organization is one of the oldest and largest refugee resettlement agencies in the country. You are not part of this coalition in this program. Why not?

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah:

So we attended the State Department event. We certainly are supportive of anything that can rebuild the infrastructure.

There are some excellent groups who are involved. But we have invested in a model of community co-sponsorship, because we have seen over decades of experience that the best outcomes happen when there is public-private collaboration. So, for us, co-sponsorship means leveraging the incredible generosity and compassion of Americans, while also recognizing that the buck stops with us, as a resettlement agency that has done this work for 83 years.

We're grateful for any effort that brings Americans into the work, but it's a lot to ask of private citizens to do this principally on their own. And so that's where I think that there are opportunities to leverage individual involvement. But, really, at the end of the day, there is real value to the professionalization that we have seen in the four decades that the U.S. refugee admissions program has been in place.

Amna Nawaz:

So, when you look at the refugee resettlement program in the U.S. right now, I mean, President Biden's latest refugee cap for this year, for 2023, is set at 125,000 people.

When you look at the way our system works right now, where would you be putting resources and attention for the U.S. to get anywhere close to that number?

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah:

Amna, that's a great question, because we have got to solve for the real problem. And that's not the domestic infrastructure to resettle refugees.

It's the backlogs that continue to plague the program. Maybe there's a misconception out there that we don't have the domestic capacity here in the U.S., but that's just not the case. It is true that many resettlement sites closed during the cuts of the Trump administration. But two years later, we have built back.

At LIRS, for example, we had to close 17 of our 48 sites during the Trump administration. But we haven't just returned to 48. We actually now have 50 resettlement sites up and running. So the real and most pressing challenge is, actually, how do we help process refugees, and ultimately admit them to the U.S.?

And to your point of citing the numbers, the administration has increased the number to 1000 — 62,500 and then 125,000. But, in the first year, we resettled less than 12,000. And in the second year, we resettled about 25,000. So the question is how we build that pipeline abroad.

Otherwise, there's a risk that you have this new program and sponsors will come forward, but there's actually going to be very few families to support.

Amna Nawaz:

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah is the president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Krish, thank you for joining us.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah:

Thanks for having me.