WASHINGTON, DC — FWD.us President Todd Schulte issued the following statement on the decision by President Biden to maintain historically low refugee admission levels:

The Biden Administration’s decision to maintain the historically low refugee admissions levels set by President Trump is tragic, wrong, and misguided. It fails not only on questions of basic morality, but displays a misreading of the realities of forced migration, the refugee program, and asylum on a functional basis.

At some of our best moments, America has been a beacon of hope and a nation that actively seeks to welcome those seeking refuge—and at some of our worst, we turned our back on those very people in their time of greatest need.

When the Biden Administration talks about building a new humane and working immigration system, that means — put simply — that instead of defending a fundamentally failed system where there are not nearly enough family-based, employment-based or refugee avenues to come to the US from many nations, we need to create actual working legal immigration avenues.

Rather than pretending that the increase in kids, women, and families arriving at the border limits the capacity to welcome refugees, the Biden Administration should recognize that creating opportunities for people surviving persecution to apply for protection closer to their homes would help alleviate the current situation by building an actual working and humane system. That their own revised refugee policy acknowledges that this is important, but then keeps levels at these historic lows displays why today’s decision is not only morally wrong, but will make the forced migration situation from Central America worse.

We strongly urge President Biden to reverse this decision and commit to his prior promises to rebuild America’s refugee program.