This month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk declared, “Haiti is on the verge of an abyss.” The security and humanitarian situation has become untenable. News from the country underscores the dire situation; a cholera outbreak was announced in early October as clean water is in scarce supply. Because of the […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
A Systematic Failing for Asylum Seekers
World War II displaced an estimated 60 million individuals. As a result, in the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Refugee Protocol, the United Nations defined a refugee as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to their home country and cannot obtain protection in that country due to past persecution or a […]
USCRI Snapshot: Protection For Refugees Needed After Two Years Of War In Northern Ethiopia
The conflict in northern Ethiopia, which began in earnest on November 3-4, 2020, has displaced millions of people and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The war has featured wide-scale atrocities against displaced persons, such as the disappearance and forced removal of thousands of Eritrean refugees. The Ethiopian state and the UN Refugee […]
Policy Brief: COP 27 and climate-related migration and displacement
This November, delegates from countries and organizations around the world will convene for the annual Conference of the Parties, or COP, conference on climate change. Since Glasgow hosted last year’s COP 26, climate-related disasters have continued to exacerbate existing inequities, upend economic activity, and pose broad threats to a more secure and sustainable future for […]
Fact Sheet: Parole Process for Venezuelans
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a Parole Process for Venezuelans on October 19, 2022. The “Process for Venezuelans” allows Venezuelan nationals and their immediate family members to enter the United States on humanitarian parole, permitting individuals to stay in the country temporarily for two years and access work permits. These individuals must have […]
Policy Brief: To Support Children’s Rights Domestically and Internationally, the United States Must Ratify the UNCRC
As we look forward to Universal Children’s Day on November 20, 2022, USCRI explores the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in this week’s policy brief. The UNCRC is the most widely adopted human rights pact in the world, signed and ratified by every country recognized by the U.N., except the […]
The Expanded Use of Title 42 Places More Migrants and Asylum Seekers in Harm’s Way
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on October 12, 2022, that it will expel Venezuelans entering without authorization at the southern border to Mexico through the use of Title 42, an obscure provision of public health law that allows border officials to rapidly expel asylum seekers and migrants to Mexico or their home […]
Chapter 3: Protections for Unaccompanied Children in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA)
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and The Children’s Village present chapter three of Where We Stand: A 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the United States. The retrospective will review the Unaccompanied Children’s Program from the passage of the Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002 until today. It assesses 20 […]
Policy Brief: Waiting for Work Authorization: Survivors of Human Trafficking
While human trafficking spans all demographics, certain factors can place individuals at a higher risk of labor trafficking. Some of these risk factors include recent migration/ relocation history, immigration status, employment in a marginalized or unregulated workforce, having been previously affected by abuse or violence, and poverty. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that 24.9 […]
What is the Afghan Adjustment Act?
The Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA), or “Triple A,” is a proposed piece of legislation introduced in both chambers of Congress. Its primary purpose is to provide a pathway to lawful permanent residency for tens of thousands of Afghans who have resettled in the United States since the country’s central government fell to the Taliban last […]
