The Biden administration announced in early May that it will raise the historically low cap on refugee settlement set by former President Donald J. Trump to 62,500 refugees from 15,000. Under Mr. Trump’s draconian policy, the refugee resettlement process ground almost to a halt; the applications of over 100,000 people were put on hold indefinitely. Refugees from a number of Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia, Syria and Yemen, were blocked almost entirely, despite the devastation caused by war in all three countries. Besides allowing more applicants from these mostly Muslim nations, Mr. Biden’s ruling also provides more slots for refugees from other nations in Africa, the Middle East and Central America.
This is welcome news and a needed recognition that the United States has an obligation to ease the suffering of these people. We are not only the wealthiest nation in the world; we are a major instigator of the violence and political turmoil that has spurred refugees to abandon their desperate living situations worldwide. And despite heated rhetoric to the contrary, refugee resettlement does not have a significant negative impact on the U.S. economy. In fact, like most immigrants to the United States, refugees have historically proven to be significant contributors to the American economy within a generation of resettlement. It should also go without saying that the American people have a moral obligation to welcome the stranger, the orphan and the widow—a mandate present in the Bible and shared by almost every religious tradition.
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