Page 42 - CLT122820

42 ¦ DECEMBER 28, 2020 CLOSING ARGUMENT

EDITORIAL BOARD

¦ From WHAT WE on PAGE 41 the lowest ceiling of 67,000 refugees dated back to
family members; some of these remedies also of- 1986; in 2016, the U.S. resettled 85,000 refugees.
fer eligibility for federal public benefits and other Even during the Trump early years, the refugee
forms of assistance, in recognition of the trauma resettlement ceilings wildly exceeded this year’s
that victims have suffered and the help they will limit—50,000 in 2017; 45,000 in 2018; and 30,000
need to recover. Just as we already do with refu- in 2019.)
gees and asylees, who are victimized by foreign With border apprehensions down by half in
governments, or groups these governments can- 2020—initially because of the Administration’s ef-
not or will not control, why should we not offer forts to end long-standing asylum protections at
similar status and benefits to these victims, who the southern border and, more recently, because
have been harmed by the actions of our own gov- of its total shutdown of the border in response to
ernment? COVID—asylum applications will likely also drop
Remarkably, granting legal status to the 5,500 dramatically. (In contrast to refugee resettlement,
separated children and their families would not there are no numerical limits on the number of
have made a dent in reaching our expected refu- people who can apply for and receive asylum.)
gee and asylee numbers for the year. Cuts by the Thus, in comparison to these lowered ceilings for
Trump Administration have decimated the refu- refugee resettlement, combined with the likely
gee program. For instance, in fiscal year 2020, diminution in asylum grants, the number of chil-
which ended September 30, only 11,814 refugees dren we have separated from their parents at the
were resettled, a number far short of the annual border is both small and finite—5,500 children
ceiling of 18,000 proposed by the President him- and their immediate families.
self. And this untapped annual ceiling of 18,000 These separated families will never fully recover
refugees in 2020 itself represents a historic drop, from the trauma our government has inflicted on
reflecting the lowest levels of refugee resettlement them, but it is time we as a nation take reasonable
since the program’s inception forty years ago. (For measures to atone for and hopefully learn from
comparison, before the Trump Administration, our inhumanity.
¦

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