Working across the aisle to welcome refugees

A new piece of bipartisan legislation in Congress aims to improve the way the United States welcomes refugees like Mona Rath and his family, who arrived in New York from Nepal in 2009.

Photo: Misha Cohen/IRC

Protecting those persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality or political opinion is a proud American tradition. It is also a historically bipartisan issue in Congress, stretching back from the 2008 Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act — which rescued almost 60,000 Iraqi refugees through resettlement in the U.S. — to the 1980 Refugee Act.  It is thus all the more exciting to see that different sides of the aisle can agree that reforming the domestic refugee resettlement program is needed so that it works better for refugees and American communities.

Today Congressman Gary Peters along with 19 other Members of Congress introduced a new piece of bipartisan legislation that aims to improve the way the United States welcomes refugees: the Domestic Refugee Resettlement Reform and Modernization Act of 2011 (H.R. 1475).  The bill takes a number of important steps toward reforming and modernizing a system that does not always work well. The bill doesn’t seek to overhaul the system; rather it’s a modest and realistic fix that avoids wading into budget debates and yet makes a number of important changes that will benefit all states and communities welcoming refugees.

Some of the specific positive changes that the bill would make include:

• Increasing the profile of the federal office providing services to refugees;


• Collecting vital data related to the needs and vulnerabilities of refugees in order to serve them better and assist communities welcoming them;


• Mandating a comprehensive study of the resettlement program — something the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has advocated for;


• Improving the way state governments get reimbursed for their assistance to refugees — thus strengthening an important piece of the resettlement system.

The IRC applauds this group of Congressmen and women recognizing and tackling the issue — and we applaud Congressman Peters for taking the initiative on this often overlooked subject.  Refugees, communities, and resettlement service providers hope the Senate will follow their lead.