The Trump administration’s termination of refugee aid agreements “upends a proud bipartisan American tradition that has worked for decades — one built on partnership between government, local communities, and faith-based organizations like ours to ensure refugee families have the support they need to succeed,” said Vignarajah with Global Refuge.
On Wednesday, brief messages from State Department officials told refugee groups that their contracts were “terminated for the convenience of the U.S. Government pursuant to a directive” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio for “alignment with agency priorities and the national interest.”.
HIAS, the oldest and only Jewish refugee aid organization in the United States, is a plaintiff in both the Seattle and Washington, D.C. lawsuits targeting refugee admissions and foreign aid, respectively.
“Defendants seek to shut down the entirety of the [refugee admissions program] ... immediately and permanently, in blatant violation of the Refugee Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and this court’s ruling,” they added.
Refugee Admissions Program marks the “essential destruction of a program that has saved more than 3.6 million lives” since it was created by Congress in 1980, according to Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge.
