By: Savannah Smith
Peer-reviewed by REAL members
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of State recently announced that there would no longer be restrictions on refugees traveling to the U.S. beginning January 11, 2022 (Alvarez, 2022). This decision follows a whirlwind year for President Joe Biden’s refugee policy, which has changed repeatedly throughout his short time in office.
In April 2021, Biden announced that his administration would keep the historically low 15,000-refugee admissions cap put in place by former President Donald Trump. However, after facing a fierce backlash within his own party and from human rights activists, his administration was ultimately swayed to increase the cap as planned (Shear, 2021). In May 2021, Biden raised the admissions cap to 62,500 (Shear, 2021), and in October 2021, he reaffirmed his promise to increase that cap to 125,000, which is now set to take effect in fiscal year 2022 (The White House, 2021).
Afghan refugees have been notably impacted by these sporadic changes to U.S. refugee policy. Following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and takeover of the country by Taliban forces in August 2021, a humanitarian crisis ensued. Thousands of Afghans at risk, due to their connections with the U.S. or its allies, had to quickly be evacuated and get through Kabul’s tightly controlled airport for resettlement elsewhere. In response, the Biden administration shifted course once again, this time in late 2021, imposing a temporary freeze on the admission of refugees in order to focus on the resettlement of Afghans and those who met certain exceptions (Alvarez, 2022).
Resettlement agencies that partner with the federal government were the targeted beneficiaries of this freeze. Priscilla Alvarez, who first reported that the temporary pause would be lifted, explains this reasoning further, stating that, “refugee resettlement agencies that partner with the federal government had limited capacity after years of declining refugee admissions under the Trump administration, resulting in closed offices and laid-off staff” (2022). The freeze provided refugee resettlement agencies with an opportunity to address these issues and to specifically focus on resettling large numbers of Afghans.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is one of many refugee resettlement organizations that have been assisting with the Afghan crisis. According to their website, LIRS is “the largest faith-based nonprofit dedicated to serving vulnerable immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the U.S.” (LIRS, 2021). In December 2021, LIRS opened a new resettlement office in Alexandria, Virginia specifically to receive refugees from Afghanistan and to help integrate them into the community (Kunkle, 2021). Many Afghan refugees choose to resettle in Northern Virginia because there is already a large Afghan community in the area (Olivo, 2021). Through existing sites, LIRS had already resettled over 1,200 refugees in Northern Virginia since the summer (Jarvis, 2021). Officials from LIRS’s Alexandria office further reported that they anticipated resettling close to 700 refugees to the area from housing at nearby military bases (Kunkle, 2021).
Lifting the temporary freeze on refugee admissions to the U.S. is essential to fulfilling the Biden administration’s promise of accepting 125,000 refugees over the next fiscal year. It is important to note, however, that accepting more refugees could make it more difficult to address the problems that already exist for refugees trying to integrate into their new communities. For example, resettlement agencies could quickly become overwhelmed by an abrupt increase in admissions because their operations were drastically deconstructed during the previous presidential administration. Additionally, despite the presence of a large Afghan community in Northern Virginia, refugees who lack established connections in the area–combined with high housing costs, inability to access personal funds, and lack of access to food and other resources–present significant challenges to resettling (Olivo, 2021). More specifically, finding permanent housing in an area like Northern Virginia, which already suffers from an affordability challenge, especially without a steady income or access to rental or credit history, has proven incredibly difficult for refugees trying to resettle here permanently (Olivo, 2021). These individuals often leave their home countries in urgency, which does not allow them with time to gather these documents and records that are standard for taking residency in a new country.
Based on these trends, it is necessary that the federal government prioritize consistency in its refugee policy that has been absent over the previous fiscal year. As a nation founded by immigrants, the U.S. is at its best when individuals from different backgrounds and cultures are accepted within local communities to provide diverse perspectives that foster cross-cultural understanding. Abruptly decreasing or pausing the refugee admissions cap creates confusion and denies vulnerable individuals from resettling in a safe place. Conversely, abruptly increasing the refugee admissions cap can leave resettlement agencies overwhelmed, so prioritizing a steady increase of refugees admitted to the U.S. is necessary to rebuild the system on a strong, sustainable foundation.
Increasing the resources that are allocated to refugee resettlement agencies is also particularly important in this context, especially as the admissions cap is significantly higher now than it was a year ago. For example, the federal government only provides “a one-time payment of $2,275 for each Afghan an agency serves, of which $1,225 is available for agencies to use for direct assistance, like housing or basic necessities” (Alvarez, 2021). That leaves many Afghans with minimal allowance left to sustain themselves if employment remains an issue. In a place like Northern Virginia, where those of us who live in this area know that living costs are incredibly high, this one-time payment amount does not provide an adequate safety net to enable refugees to build and sustain a new life, especially as it is not always easy to find work quickly. The federal government can address this issue by either increasing the amount of the one-time payment or by increasing the frequency of those payments. Additional funding should also be provided to resettlement agencies to help them ramp upn job placement support as a way to reduce the amount of time refugees rely on payment from the federal government, especially if that payment quotient is not increased. More funding in these areas could be obtained either as a part of the federal government’s annual budget or as a separate spending bill introduced in Congress. Finally, considering refugees’ lack of access to important documents, such as credit and rental history, resettlement agencies also need to work with the federal government to establish an official waiver for these documents as a way to ease the process of finding permanent residency.
All opinions are exclusively those of the author and not of George Washington University, the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the Refugee Educational Advancement Laboratory or any of its members or other entities.
References
Alvarez, P. (2021, September 30). Refugee groups race to find housing for 53,000 Afghan evacuees. CNN. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/30/politics/afghan-refugees-housing-costs/index.html
Alvarez, P. (2022, January 10). Refugee admissions to the US will restart this week after temporary freeze. CNN. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/10/politics/refugee-united-states/index.html
Jarvis, J. (2021, December 23). Nonprofit opens afghan resettlement office in Alexandria. INSIDENOVA.COM. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/nonprofit-opens-afghan-resettlement-office-in-alexandria/article_9ceacccc-627a-11ec-9165-dfab1d533b33.html
Kunkle, F. (2021, December 17). Faith-based organization opens Northern Virginia Office to aid Afghan refugees. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/16/afghan-refugees-aid-virginia-lutheran-nonprofit/
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS). (2022, January 3). About Us. LIRS. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.lirs.org/about/
Olivo, A. (2021, December 12). Refugee aid groups in Washington region overwhelmed by Afghan caseloads. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/12/afghan-refugees-washington-virginia-cases/
Olivo, A. (2021, September 19). Afghan refugees in D.C. area face their next hurdle: An Affordable Housing Crunch. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/dc-afghan-refugees-affordable-housing/2021/09/17/6c26fbd2-1587-11ec-b976-f4a43b740aeb_story.html
Shear, M. (2021, September 20). The Biden Administration will raise the cap on refugee admissions to 125,000. The New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/us/politics/biden-refugee-cap.html
The White House. (2021, October 8). Memorandum for the secretary of State on presidential determination on refugee admissions for Fiscal Year 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2022, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/08/memorandum-for-the-secretary-of-state-on-presidential-determination-on-refugee-admissions-for-fiscal-year-2022/