Peace Corps Community for Refugees’ 2024 Goal
PCC4R will continue our focus on welcoming and supporting refugees and asylum seekers here at home, just as PCVs were welcomed and supported in their countries. This is especially relevant given the difficult climate some face today. We accomplish these goals through our teamwork in Advocacy & Education, Partnership and Communication.
Advocacy Days on the Hill May 7-8, 2024
Mike Roman, RPCV Kiribati, has journeyed to the Hill numerous times, advocating for causes like Multiple Sclerosis, Climate Change and the Peace Corps. Throughout his time on the Hill, he engaged with individuals of all ages, from seniors to young adults, including his own students from the University of Cincinnati. However, this time the cause of Refugees brought him to the Hill.
In preparation for his task for Advocacy Week in May, the Ohio delegation met online and prepared for every possibility. Their team consisted entirely of refugees from Sudan, Somalia and Ukraine, Mike and the team lead from the Conference of Catholic Bishops. She and Mike led the first meeting with Senator Vance’s Chief of Staff, before swiftly moving to the second meeting across the Capitol on the House side. As they voiced concerns regarding oversight, funding and key legislation such as the Afghan Adjustment Act, Refugee Protection Act and the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act, others began to chime in, adding their perspectives and slowly warming up to the idea of participating.
Following their second meeting and during a two-hour break they trained others on leading, offering support and guidance as needed. The last two meetings of the first day were largely run by the refugees. By the second day, Mike found himself taking a backseat as others took charge, transforming from timid individuals to confident leaders. Their growth was palpable, evident in the covert thumbs-ups and louder-than-life smiles that followed each conclusion.
In the halls of Congress and on the bustling streets of the Capitol, the team’s rallying cry of “OH” – “IO” brought laughter and smiles. Amidst the excitement, they were thrilled to spot President Biden driving by; a big moment for everyone!
OH – IO is not just a silly war cry, but also a sense of pride in who they now represented, far from home and filled with empowerment and a new commitment to advocacy.
Welcome Corps Celebrates Its First Year!
In the Welcome Corps’ First Year, more than 100 sponsor groups from 32 states have signed up to be matched with refugees in need of resettlement support. Sponsors welcomed the first refugee arrivals on World Refugee Day in June 2023, and have since welcomed nearly 100 refugees from around the world. You and your friends can set up a Welcome Corps group locally. Read here to find out how!
Refugee Bills Still Linger In Congress
Richard MacIntyre, PCC4Refugees Advocacy Team Member
The Advocacy Team of PCC4R a year ago selected two important bills in Congress that had just been introduced. They still linger without being brought to a vote in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. The most urgent bill, the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA), was introduced in the Senate and House last July to enable Afghan evacuees, forced by Taliban to leave their country over two years ago, a path to secure permanent residency or citizenship here in the United States. Because that bill has now lingered in Congress, the special humanitarian parole that allowed Afghan evacuees to become refugees here has expired, and they now have no legal residency anywhere. An updated rally call from veterans for the bill is available here: https://thewarhorse.org/afghan-adjustment-act-for-us-ally-immigration-path-stalls/
The Senate version of the Afghan Adjustment Act S.2327 was introduced on 07/13/2023 by Sen Nancy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Sen Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and has now secured 17 Senator bipartisan cosponsors. To make this bill totally bipartisan, cosponsors are only approved each time there is one Democrat and one Republican to be listed at the same time. There are numerous other Democratic Senators who have agreed to be added as co-sponsors, but they need to be matched up with Republican Senators who agree to cosponsor. We need more Republican Senators on board!
The House version of the Afghan Adjustment Act H.R.4627 was simultaneously introduced on 07/13/2023 by Rep Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Rep Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregan) and has secured 47 bipartisan cosponsors among U.S. House of Representative members, under the same two-by-two bipartisan co-sponsorship. Again, quite a few Democratic House members are awaiting Republican House members to join in cosponsoring this bill.
The second congressional action we have been seeking to promote has now been lingering in both chambers for over a year. It is also hung up in the Judiciary Committees of both chambers. They are two similar versions of the Asylum Seekers Work Authorization Act, introduced in Congress last year. The Senate version was introduced by Sen Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen Lisa Murkowski (R- Alaska), but it only has two other co-sponsors. The House version was introduced by Rep Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and has 24 cosponsors, but only one of them is a Republican. Despite the logic of these bills, it seems that the chances of passing in both the Senate and the House are not strong. Read here Rep. Pingree’s argument for allowing asylees to work 30 days after arrival in the US instead of waiting the current 6 month required for a work permit: — asylum seekers work bill.docx
Under congressional rules, new bills are first sent to a congressional committee in each chamber for review and a decision is made to take that bill to the floor of that chamber for a vote by all members of the Senate or House. HOWEVER, the JUDICIARY COMMITTEES in the Senate and House have taken NO ACTION on these bills for over a year. Therefore, we believe that advocacy efforts need to be directed to the leaders and members of those committees, especially by their constituents. We have joined many other groups, especially those made up of US veterans who served in Afghanistan, in trying to get constituents of Republican Senators to add their names as co-sponsors.
Listed at the end of this paragraph are the names of members of the Senate Judiciary Committees that need to take action. Please write any of them with whom you have any connection to or where you are a voting constituent. The Senate Judiciary Committee is chaired by Sen Richard Durban of Illinois, and the highest Republican ranking member is the same Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina co-sponsored the bill. Why the Senate Judiciary committee has not taken action on this bill remains a mystery. However, I was told that Sen Klobuchar believes it will eventually pass. WRITE THESE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE AND URGE THEM TO TAKE ACTION ON THIS BILL: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members
The bill, however, must also be passed by the House of Representatives before the end of this year to become law. This may be the biggest challenge. The House Judiciary Committee is chaired by Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) is the highest Democrat ranking member. This may not be approved without a very strong push; we hope to participate in that urgent push. PLEASE WRITE THESE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE AND URGE THEM TO TAKE ACTION ON THIS BILL: — https://judiciary.house.gov/about/membership
The final option seems to be end-of-year lame duck sessions in both houses of Congress, when members can seek to attach bills to other legislation that might be relevant. So it is possible that, if there is enough support, these bills might get attached to other bills that could be passed in both chambers. But this is a very uncertain option, and one which shouldn’t be necessary, but might be the only manner for approval of either bill this year.
Please do what you can. If you have further actions to suggest, connect with PCC4R by writing to info@pcc4refugees.org. Thank you!
Book To Consider
- Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is a new book that reckons with the border crisis in all its complexity. Author Jonathan Blitzer connects the dots between U.S. foreign policy in Central America and the migrant crisis.
“In the past decade, the demographics of those crossing the southern border have shifted from Mexicans looking for work to Central Americans and others seeking asylum. The results include unaccompanied children, family separations and refugee encampments.” Mark Abramson for The New York Times
- How Migration Really Works is a new book that brings calm rigor to a heated issue. https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2024/0117/How-Migration-Really-Works-brings-calm-rigor-to-a-heated-issue
- Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders
Conservative columnist Jason L. Riley, member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, makes an eye-opening case for why immigration improves the lives of Americans and is important for the future of the country.
Separating fact from myth in today’s heated immigration debate, Riley contends that foreign workers play a vital role in keeping America prosperous; that maintaining an open-border policy is consistent with free-market economic principals; and that the arguments put forward by opponents of immigration ultimately don’t hold up to scrutiny.
In the course of his fourteen years at the Journal, Riley has covered immigration’s impact on our economy, our culture and our politics.
In lucid, jargon-free prose, Riley takes on the most common anti-immigrant complaints, including claims that today’s immigrants overpopulate the United States, steal jobs, depress wages, don’t assimilate, and pose an undue threat to homeland security. As the presidential election approaches with immigration reform on the front burner, Let Them In is essential reading for liberals and conservatives alike who want to bring an informed perspective to the discussion.
This book review was provided by Goodreads.
- A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging
Migration may necessitate narration, as the Bosnian American novelist Aleksandar Hemon has argued, but over time, the countless narratives of desperate people piled onto leaky rafts, of treacherous journeys on foot through unmarked jungles, of newcomers navigating bewildering bureaucracies, of reactionary governments building walls — physical and legal — to keep them out, take on a depressing sameness.
Immigration restrictionists often take advantage of this sameness to broadly paint asylum seekers and refugees as an undifferentiated and threatening mass that brings crime or dangerous ideologies while siphoning off resources from the host country.
But immigration advocates are guilty of their own form of reductionism. “Much left-leaning immigration journalism is formulaic: Desperate person leaves home, seeks aid in a bleak and brutal world,” writes the journalist Lauren Markham, in a characteristically self-lacerating passage of her new book, “A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging.” Or as Theo Alexellis, an official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, tells the author, there are only two kinds of stories people tell about immigrants: “They are either terrorists and criminals, or sad, pitiful charity cases.”
Every refugee or asylum seeker is, of course, a distinct individual with a distinct life story, attributes and flaws. But justifying their presence in a new country requires telling a story of escape from hardship. “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark,” the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire wrote. The very familiarity of that framing can work against them. Asylum seekers “often find their claims rejected because their stories sound too alike,” Markham writes, noting that the longer immigration judges and asylum officers work at their jobs, the higher their rejection rates. The stories lose their potency over time.
Markham’s book attempts to tell a different sort of story. There’s a traditional journalistic account at the center of it from Markham, who has been writing and advocating about refugee issues for decades.
Markham weaves between coverage of the contemporary migration wave and the history of Greece, digressing into accounts of her travels around Greece, journalistic and touristic. While the narrative features frequent encounters and interviews with asylum seekers, aid group and government officials, and local residents, the book is surprisingly self-reflective, as she interrogates her perspective to convey the stories of migrants to Western readers. My own experience with this type of reporting is vastly more limited than Markham’s, but I’ve done enough to know there’s no way to feel entirely at ease with yourself after leaving a refugee camp to drive back to your air-conditioned hotel. Markham’s approach suggests that what we need isn’t just more stories of migration. Sometimes, rather than asking migrants to explain themselves, we, in the countries they are trying so desperately to reach, should be trying a little harder to explain ourselves.
Joshua Keating is a senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy and world news, and the author of “Invisible Countries.”
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