Help Protect Asylum Seekers

Every day refugee families face unspeakable circumstances. They're forced to flee violence in Syria with their toddlers in their arms, have little food to eat or water to drink in drought-stricken Somalia, are stranded in Greece in dangerous living conditions...

The reality of President Trump's decision to slash the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. next year by nearly half impacts so many refugee families who are already facing dire situations.

America has always been a beacon of hope for those in need — a true global leader in response to the refugee crisis. It’s unconscionable that this administration has turned its back on the most vulnerable among us. But I assure you, my colleagues and I will never stop working to help as many refugees as possible. And we need you with us in the months to come.

You can help us support stranded families now. We aid refugees around the world and help refugees who are resettled here in the U.S. Help us provide them with trauma counseling, health care, emergency aid, water and sanitation and other critical assistance by donating today.

Thanks for continuing to stand with refugees

When families or separated children are released from detention, they need immediate assistance and resources to arrive to their destination, address basic needs, and receive critical referrals for social and legal services. IRC’s response offers a range of emergency services including needs assessment, temporary shelter, and transportation assistance, emergency medical services, access to phones and computers, food and cash assistance, referrals for services in destination location, know your rights and basic guidance, and mental health screenings.

For nearly five years, the IRC has worked with unaccompanied children from Central America seeking asylum in the United States. Prior to the new policy, unaccompanied children were not forcibly separated from their parents, but rather had come to the U.S. to seek protection on their own, often with the intention of reuniting with other family members residing in the U.S. Many of these unaccompanied children who had traveled alone were older children or teens.

Now, the population of unaccompanied children in U.S. custody includes thousands of children, including many babies and toddlers, who were taken from their parents at the border.

The IRC oversees post-release services for unaccompanied children, which includes:

• connecting them to legal providers to help with their asylum claim;
• providing unaccompanied children and sponsors basic orientation on their rights before referring them to legal services organizations who can directly work on their case;
• conducting home visits on foster parents to ensure that the home is safe for minors;
• training, information sharing and guiding of sponsors of unaccompanied children around issues ranging from education, legal assistance, and child welfare laws. 

Your donations to this effort will help us respond quickly and efficiently to families as they are released from detention.

Links:

• Help support Asylum Seekers
• How Can I Support Asylum Seekers?
• Seeking Safety at the Border

• The security situation in the Northern Triangle is deteriorating, forcing people to leave their homes.  The number of children and families fleeing has increased over the years. From the IRC’s experience in the region, the fears of persecution among those fleeing the Northern Triangle are very real. Violence in the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador is amongst some of the worst in the world outside of an active war zone.
  
  
• The $8.6 billion the President requested in FY2020 for a wall is almost 20 times more than the amount requested to address the root causes of violence and displacement in the region.  Threats of pulling aid only undermine U.S. allies who are in a position to address the root causes, not just the symptoms, of this crisis. Instead of cutting aid, the U.S. should support Central American countries’ efforts to reduce violence and poverty  – the core reason people are fleeing north.
  
  
• Increasingly, recently released asylum-seeking families in the U.S. are being abandoned by the Trump Administration with no access to food, shelter and clothing rather than being met with a formal reception system. Many have small children or infants. They often speak little English, have no means to travel, or information on how to reach their final destinations or reunite with family in the U.S. Many have been given no guidance on when to attend their immigration court hearings.
  
  
• Communities along the border are trying to support these asylum-seeking families, but their resources are being stretched to breaking point. IRC is providing additional capacity in order to meet these needs, mobilizing with resources, volunteers, and utilizing our emergency expertise to help as many people as possible.
  
  
• Call to Action: The IRC calls on the U.S. Administration to follow domestic and international law, and uphold America’s humanitarian commitments.Congress must act to reverse the systemic attacks on protections for vulnerable populations, refugee resettlement, and legal pathways for asylum seekers, to protect American values and American interests. In recovering America’s humanitarian leadership, Congress must override the President’s veto of the revocation of his unnecessary Emergency Declaration, restore funding to address violence and insecurity in Central America, vote to prevent the deportation of those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and uphold the rights of people seeking asylum.

Links:

• Administration Can Keep Sending Asylum Seekers to Mexico - NYT

• Read more about the crisis at the border (PDF)
  

For his annual State of the Union address, President Trump chose the theme "American Greatness," but he failed to highlight what truly makes America great: our legacy of supporting people affected by violence and persecution here and around the world. Instead, President Trump distorted the record on people seeking asylum at the border. Notably absent from the President’s remarks were the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the historic scale of forced displacement globally.

Let’s set the record straight.

Correcting the Record: The U.S. Southern Border

It comes as no surprise that the President used his State of the Union speech to demand funding for the border wall under the guise of a manufactured ‘crisis’. In reality, the number of irregular border crossings, as reflected in Customs and Border Patrol’s arrest statistics, are the lowest they’ve been in decades. The real crisis is the instability in Central America which is forcing people to flee for their lives, coupled with the administration’s systematic attacks on these same vulnerable individuals. Rather than offering safe haven, the U.S. administration continues to erode safe pathways by blocking people from claiming asylum, separating families as part of its ‘zero tolerance’ effort, and forcibly returning asylum seekers to Mexico as part of the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy.

Seeking asylum is legal. Turning asylum seekers away is not. The “Remain in Mexico” policy robs asylum seekers of their due process rights, including access to legal counsel, and will expose thousands of families and children to unsafe conditions. Therefore, the IRC calls on the U.S. Administration to rescind this cruel and irresponsible policy, follow domestic and international law, and uphold America’s humanitarian commitments.

A True Legacy of Greatness: Welcoming Refugees in the U.S

Finally, President Trump neglected to address the historic global refugee crisis. Right now, over 68.5 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes, including over 25 million refugees who have fled their countries in search of safety. These numbers are the highest since World War II. Although he invoked the memory of the horrors of the Holocaust, the president failed to acknowledge the countless lives that could have been saved had Jewish refugees not been turned away by the United States. The president overlooked how his administration’s own refugee policies are harming Iraqis and Afghans who have fought alongside American troops.

America’s legacy of greatness as a safe haven for refugees is in jeopardy. In September 2018, the administration set the lowest refugee admissions since the resettlement program was established. To make matters worse, based on the current pace of refugee admissions, it is unlikely that even this extremely low ceiling will be met. This simply is not enough. The United States must never abandon its proud legacy of offering stability to people fleeing war and oppression. 

Links:

• Stand with asylum seekers at the border
• Asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: what's the difference?
• Fact check: is there a crisis at the border?