HIAS Statement on Trump Administration Withdrawal from Global Migration Pact

SILVER SPRING, Md—The Trump Administration announced this weekend the end of the United States’ participation in The Global Compact on Migration, citing inconsistencies between U.S. immigration and refugee policies and provisions in the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants. The Declaration, unanimously adopted on September 19, 2016 by 193 UN member states on September 19, 2016, reaffirms the Refugee Convention of 1951, commits governments to fully respect the human rights of refugees and migrants, and pledges to share responsibility with countries that host forcibly displaced persons.

In response, Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, issued the following statement:

“At a time when U.S. leadership is needed more than ever on the issue of migration, President Trump has removed our country from global migration talks, making the United States increasingly irrelevant to the global migration debate. Addressing migration, by definition, requires international cooperation. The Trump Administration’s decision to isolate the U.S. from the international community as it seeks to address global migration is an abdication of U.S. leadership.

"As the world’s oldest migration agency founded in New York City in 1881, HIAS is dismayed that the Trump Administration has unilaterally rejected the New York Declaration, which was adopted unanimously by 193 countries last year at the United Nations in the city that is world famous for welcoming immigrants and is the home of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty."

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