After years of planning and hard work, USCRI Honduras has launched the Emprende Pro Mujer program in collaboration with Pro Mujer and the Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM). As of now, this innovative program will have 120 beneficiaries – all of whom are women returnees from the coast of Honduras with microenterprises that they are […]
Author: USCRI
Queering Welcome: Brazil’s Approach to LGBTQ+ Rights and Refugees
Brazil has some of the world’s strongest legal protections for queer and trans people. Since 2013, same-sex couples have had equal rights to marriage and adoption as heterosexual couples. Trans citizens can change their government identity card to reflect their lived gender identity, and do not have to vote under their dead name. These protections […]
Building Community, Sharing Culture: USCRI Offices Celebrate World Refugee Day
World Refugee Day, observed annually on June 20, is a day dedicated to honoring the strength, courage, and resilience of refugees worldwide. It’s a time to raise awareness about the challenges refugees face and to celebrate their contributions to their new communities. USCRI field offices across the country held celebrations in their communities, raising awareness […]
U.S. Terminates Protections for Haitians Despite Deteriorating Conditions
On June 27, 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti—effective September 2, 2025—stripping Haitian nationals in the United States of legal protections and work authorization. This deeply troubling decision puts more than 500,000 Haitian community members at risk of deportation to a country in […]
Six Months Post-Assad: A Safe Return Remains Out of Reach
The Syrian displacement crisis is one of the world’s largest refugee crises. The situation escalated during the Syrian Civil War (2011-2024), when millions were displaced internally and abroad due to war, repression, and economic collapse under Bashar al-Assad’s rule. Assad’s regime deliberately used displacement as a weapon through sieges, chemical attacks, and the deliberate targeting […]
Amid Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar, Advocates Call for Extension and Redesignation of TPS
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Campaign for a New Myanmar, and 156 allied organizations are calling on the Administration to extend and redesignate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Myanmar (Burma). As the humanitarian situation in Myanmar deteriorates, TPS offers life-saving protections to those who cannot safely return home. TPS is a critical […]
Immigration Litigation: Nationwide Injunctions
You may have seen recent headlines stating that executive actions have been blocked by a federal judge. For instance, on February 25, a federal judge in Seattle blocked parts of an executive order indefinitely suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), and on April 14, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Department of Homeland […]
Starvation Closing In: Urgent Help Needed in Kenya’s Refugee Camps
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) voices grave concern over the most recent in a series of devastating cuts to food rations, which have affected over 700,000 refugees in Kenya’s Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and Kalobeyei Settlement. These cuts are a direct consequence of the withdrawal of life-saving humanitarian assistance by the […]
Children of Men: Wastelands and Hope
Note: Spoilers and details of violence ahead. “Borders will remain closed. The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue.” These are the opening lines of Children of Men. This cinematic essay was directed by Alfonso Cuarón and released in 2006. Over the years, it has been heralded as a premonition. Its imagery has been […]
The 1951 Refugee Convention: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
For a backgrounder on the refugee definition, see “Defining ‘Refugees’—An Exclusionary Legacy.” The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, amended by the 1967 Protocol, defines a “refugee” as any person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, […]
