Refugees Make America Stronger and More Prosperous

On January 15, in his confirmation hearing as President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio said that “Every dollar we spend, every program we fund and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: 

Does it make America safer?  

Does it make America stronger?  

Does it make America more prosperous?” 

When it comes to HIAS’ mission to welcome and assist refugees, the answer to all three of those questions has always been resoundingly clear: yes. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been around for more than 120 years. 

The heart of HIAS’ work is to make forcibly displaced persons safe where they are. We aim to keep them safe in the first place to which they fled, insist that their rights are protected, and ensure that they can support themselves, recover, and thrive in their new environment. Our work is intended to prevent families from becoming refugees by making it unnecessary to continue on their dangerous journey after fleeing their homes. President Trump himself recognized the importance of this work in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 2018:  

“I commend the people of Jordan and other neighboring countries for hosting refugees from this very brutal civil war. As we see in Jordan, the most compassionate policy is to place refugees as close to their homes as possible to ease their eventual return to be part of the rebuilding process. This approach also stretches finite resources to help far more people, increasing the impact of every dollar spent.” 

To get other countries to do their part, however, the United States must lead by example. This includes giving those people who flee to our borders the opportunity to apply for protection, and it means investing in an asylum system that is both fast and fair. It means that when refugees elsewhere in the world have family in the U.S. with whom they want to reunite, or they can’t be safe where they are, HIAS works to resettle them in partnership with the United States government and other countries. 

A Wise Investment

At HIAS, we believe that welcoming refugees is a moral imperative. But it has also proven to be a wise investment. It has made, to answer Senator Rubio’s questions, America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.  

A 2017 study commissioned by President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services found that resettled refugees contribute, over a 10-year period, $63 billion more than they consume in services and assistance. Seven years later, when the Biden administration updated the study, it found that over a 15-year period the net benefit to our countries of resettled refugees was $124 billion. 

The evidence is in. 

Beyond protecting refugees, HIAS stands for an efficient and fair immigration system that meets the country’s economic needs. Our current system, largely unreformed since 1986, no longer does that — and the costs of inaction are growing. 

As I write, Los Angeles is still dealing with a series of cataclysmic fires, which may soon rank as the worst natural disaster in American history. Rebuilding the city will be a long and costly task. As these climate change-driven calamities increase in frequency, immigrants will be an essential part of the workforce to recover and rebuild American cities. But because our immigration policy has been broken for decades, and because unemployment is very low, legal immigration is not meeting the demand for labor. At this moment, responsive but more robust legal immigration policies, coupled with stronger immigration enforcement, would benefit the United States enormously, increasing our tax base and addressing the challenges of the future.  

Alas, what the second Trump administration has in store would have the opposite effect. The president plans to embark on mass deportation of undocumented immigrants across the country, an initiative that would be enormously disruptive to the U.S. economy. These deportations will not only affect those who are deported — they will also drive those who remain further underground. Fewer will be willing to sign up for reconstruction efforts the next time an environmental disaster strikes an American city. The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), announced within hours of Trump’s inauguration, will further undermine our capacity to rebuild. 

Does all this sound like it will make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous? From the evidence we’ve seen, Trump’s executive orders on immigration and refugees will only make America weaker and poorer. 

We at HIAS are motivated by the Jewish teaching to welcome the stranger — repeated in the Torah 36 times — more than any other commandment. But like so many other biblical laws, this one is not only to please God but to make us better off as well. Welcoming immigrants and refugees has shown, for more than a century, that it does this. 

Nearly 250 years ago, the United States was founded as a beacon for those in search of religious and political freedom. Throughout much of these years, Americans have opened their arms to refugees, and led by example so other countries would do the same.   

We don’t yet know exactly what the second term of Donald Trump will bring us. What I do know is this: HIAS will continue our work ensuring safe passage for refugees. And we call on the president, in his sincere interest to make the United States grow wealthier, more powerful, and more secure, to acknowledge the positive contributions refugees make to these goals.