Here at USCRI, nothing motivates us more than seeing our Habesha Project students achieve their dreams. Two of our students from Venezuela – Robert and Annuris – have recently given us some big reasons to be inspired. Robert, who studies at la Universidad de las Artes in Aguascalientes, successfully defended his thesis, titled “The Migrant […]
Category: Headquarters
THE EMPRENDE PRO MUJER PROGRAM LAUNCHES IN HONDURAS
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Honoring World Refugee Day
In May of 1939, a boat of German Jews aboard the St. Louis plead for asylum in the United States. They were denied entry and returned to Europe. 254 of the passengers were killed in the Holocaust. This unconscionable past haunts us. We made a commitment to ‘never again’. Never again would we force someone […]
