HIAS CEO: The U.S. Betrays Its Promise to Welcome Refugees

Dr. Beth Oppenheim, HIAS CEO, delivered a version of the below remarks at the RCUSA national press conference to condemn the Trump Administration’s sweeping immigration restrictions announced in the wake of the November 26 shooting in Washington, D.C.

Right now, we are in a place of profound concern for the safety of our clients and our neighbors, and for the direction of the United States, which has represented welcome and opportunity for generations. As the world’s oldest refugee agency, HIAS has been there for much of that history, and for more than 120 years our work has been rooted in a simple but profound truth: every person deserves safety and dignity.

Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims of the tragic shooting in Washington, D.C. two weeks ago, and we join people of all faiths and backgrounds across the country and around the world in praying for healing.

At the same time, what has happened in the days since that tragedy has been unconscionable. The horrific actions of one person have been used as pretense for the introduction and aggressive implementation of policies that affect the safety and well-being of hundreds of thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, asylees, and immigrants.

Since the founding of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) more than 40 years ago, HIAS and the other national resettlement agencies have worked in partnership with the U.S. government to not only provide a pathway to safety for people fleeing violence and persecution, but to welcome each person with dignity, helping them to rebuild their lives and integrate into their new homes. We believe in the U.S. legacy of welcome, and we help to build it every day.

What we are seeing now is a betrayal of that legacy, and of the promises that this country made to hundreds of thousands of individuals to whom it promised safety.

When the Trump Administration says it will review and rescreen refugees who have already been welcomed and made their homes here in the U.S., they are talking about our Congolese client who waited years for the chance at safety through USRAP. She arrived in 2023, and is already taking classes in community college, working towards becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant so she can support her mother and siblings and contribute to her new community. But since learning of this new policy, she has been plunged into fear and uncertainty and says she fears she is now living on ‘borrowed time’.

When the Trump Administration says it will rescreen asylees they mean our client in Maryland who was granted asylum four years ago and works two jobs to support his family here and abroad. He now wakes up fearing a knock on the door that will again separate him from the family he has worked so hard to keep safe.

When the Trump administration halted asylum processing, and immigration processing for Afghans and people from the 19 travel ban countries, they plunged our legal clients into fear. The Afghan Honors Student eager to continue her undergraduate studies here after fleeing the Taliban. The political activist, PhD, and survivor of torture from the DRC who had rebuilt a life here and obtained a job at a restaurant. The Nicaraguan activist who was brought to the U.S. along with 200 others, and now sits in a jail cell, stateless and in legal limbo. The Afghan woman who has not seen her husband since 2019 and was hoping to finally reunite.

These are all our clients.

We know that the changes of this week are no mere administrative shifts. They create fear, retraumatize families, and jeopardize the very promise that the United States has made to those fleeing persecution. As a Jewish organization, HIAS understands what it means for an entire community to be targeted, and so we recognize that what our clients are now experiencing echoes some of the darkest chapters of our own history.

Society often sees refugees only for their trauma. And yet, their refugee journey is only one chapter of their story. While they are definitionally the survivors of persecution, their lives are not defined by fear, but rather by resilience, by devotion to family, and by an unwavering commitment to building safer futures for their children. They simply want the same things as anyone else – safety, home, stability, and community. And they deserve the same support anyone of us would hope to have for our own families – a helping hand in a challenging moment.

No matter what, HIAS will stand firmly with the immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers that we serve. We will advocate forcefully for the safety and dignity of newcomers, and work alongside communities across the country to do all we can to support them. This is how our work began, and it is what we have done every day for more than a century.

The legacy of the United States as a country that welcomes refugees is one of which we should be proud. Our message today is clear: the doors of welcome must not close — not now, and not on the people who trusted this country with their lives.