Posts about current world affairs. These are not updated over time.
Open Doors for Refugees is heartbroken by the news of the devastation caused by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023. The regions impacted by the earthquakes were already in need of humanitarian assistance before this natural disaster. In northern Syria, the impact of the earthquakes is a crisis within a crisis. […]
Last year, a bi-partisan bill that has the potential to secure the futures of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in the U.S. was blocked in Congress. The Afghan Adjustment Act, introduced in August 2022, is designed to create a streamlined path to citizenship for over 75 thousand Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. […]
The US state department has announced a new refugee program that allows ordinary Americans to sponsor and support refugees seeking permanent resettlement in the United States. Under the Welcome Corps program, American citizens and permanent residents can apply to sponsor refugees through private sponsor groups (PSGs). Each group is required to have at least five […]
Following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, more than 76,000 Afghans have entered the U.S. under a special process called “humanitarian parole.” Under humanitarian parole, Afghan evacuees can remain in the U.S. for just two years. When this parolee status expires, they will lose access to employment, health care, and their legal right […]
Our own Dr. Sallie Anna Steiner hosts this panel to discuss the efforts made by Norwegian and Swedish citizens to welcome asylum seekers. This continues amidst a backdrop where covid restrictions and European militarization at the borders increasingly reduce legal migration in these countries.
View our Afghanistan Crisis Resources page for the latest information and advice. In Short: Thousands of Afghan refugees have arrived in the U.S. already and many thousands more will in the days ahead. Many of those are and will be at Fort McCoy nearby. Although we anticipate that some of the Afghan refugees will arrive […]
Since it was enacted in March 2020, Title 42 has been used to turn away more than 1.7 million migrants at the Mexico-US border. Doctors Without Borders in Mexico report that Title 42 leaves migrants stranded in highly insecure conditions. “It is a xenophobic policy disguised as public health protection that does nothing but put […]
While many have been terribly affected by COVID and the economic fallout from it, many others of us have not been hurt financially yet we may still receive a Federal stimulus check. If you will get a stimulus check that you don’t really need, please consider supporting the very hard-hit refugee community by giving part […]
The Washington Post just put out an excellent article on what it will take to rebuild the refugee resettlement program.Read it here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/biden-refugee-executive-order/2021/02/04/52a31840-6726-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html While Biden can and promises to quickly change the “Presidential Cap” (the number of refugees the U.S. will accept in a year), it will take months to fully rebuild the program at […]
Watch JSS Executive Director, Dawn Berney’s and Open Doors for Refugee General Manager, Ken Baun’s responses to President Biden’s plans for immigration reform, beginning with the executive action: Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States. This rescinds the Muslim and African bans on flights to the US, effective immediately. The President […]
