Our local partners at Jewish Family Service of Buffalo & Erie County have partnered with Deaf Access Services to support a community of Deaf refugees. Watch our new video.
On Monday, March 20, Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD 8th District) and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) both visited HIAS headquarters to express support for refugees.
Today could have been the first day of a total ban on refugee arrivals to the United States under President Trump’s revised executive order. Instead, justice prevailed for refugees a second time, with decisions in two cases—our very own HIAS v. Trump case in Maryland and a case in Hawaii.
An emergency hearing was held today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, to hear a request by HIAS and others to block the revised executive order enacting President Trump’s refugee and Muslim ban. That ban is set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 16, unless one of the three courts currently hearing challenges to the ban intervenes to restrain or enjoin the order.
“We are suing to save lives,” said HIAS Managing Attorney Liz Sweet. “If implemented, this revised Executive Order will create the same devastating consequences for tens of thousands of refugees who our government promised safety and freedom in the United States.”
In an op-ed published on Scribe, the Forward’s curated contributor network, Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer challenges the community “to commit to have at least one conversation with a family member, co-worker or friend on behalf of today’s refugees.”
The language of the ban may have changed slightly, but the result for refugees is still the same. Tens of thousands of refugees will remain in danger after they had already been approved to come to America.
On Wednesday night, HIAS filed an amicus or “friend of the court” brief in this case, in support of the plaintiffs. Our brief highlights some of the individuals who have been impacted by this order, to show the specific ways in which “the Executive Order is causing needless and unjustifiable irreparable harm to vulnerable refugees and their families.”
Legal challenges have suspended many parts of the Muslim ban, but our doors remain closed to some 60,000 vulnerable people seeking safety in this country. That hurts people like Eden, Sunam and Magan who have been separated from loved ones. The family reunions they had long hoped for now seem out of reach. We're challenging that in court.
![[VIDEO] In Buffalo, Deaf Refugees Find Hope](https://hias.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/video-blog-teaser-1.jpg)
