The National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA has the essence of a college campus. In between the three primary buildings, weaving sidewalks converge into multiple open spaces where people can gather to eat, sit, socialize, play frisbee, or watch the squirrels run amuck. While typically used as a corporate convention and training space, the National […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
Fact Sheet – Documentation and Benefit Eligibility for Ukrainians
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the number of Ukrainians seeking safety in the United States has rapidly risen. This fact sheet outlines the three main legal pathways and their corresponding benefit eligibility, that Ukrainians are utilizing in the United States. These include 1) Temporary Protected Status (TPS); 2) Humanitarian Parole and […]
USCRI Policy Brief – A Spotlight on Family Reunification: the Central American Minors (CAM) Program
The CAM Program was created under the Obama administration in 2014 as a response to a rise in unaccompanied children arriving to the U.S.-Mexico border. As a family reunification tool, the CAM Program allows children who are living in dangerous conditions in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to travel to the United States as either […]
USCRI Policy Brief – New Asylum Rule: More Steps and Shorter Timelines
The new asylum rule has made significant changes to one of the two pathways to asylum in the United States. Most significantly, the new rule establishes a positive credible fear determination as the application for asylum, a new asylum merits interview conducted by an asylum officer (AO), and the use of a status conference in […]
USCRI Denounces Continuation of Title 42 after Judge’s Ruling
On Friday, a Louisiana federal district judge ruled to continue 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 countries without due process. This comes ahead of the Biden administration’s May 23 deadline to end the […]
Celebrating Jason Lin during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
We are excited to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May, which was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, given that the majority of the workers who […]
USCRI Statement on Authorization of Refugee Benefits for Ukrainians
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) welcomes the recent passage by the U.S. Congress of a supplemental spending bill that, among other things, authorizes refugee benefits for Ukrainian parolees. Ukrainians who were paroled into the country between February 24, 2022, and September 30, 2023, will generally be eligible for benefits to the same [...]
Webinar: Former Unaccompanied Children and Their Stories of Resilience
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and The Children’s Village hosted a virtual panel on April 19, 2022 as part of the Where We Stand: A 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the United States. Moderated by USCRI Vice President AnnaMarie Bena and Policy Analyst Jenny Rodriguez, the panel featured three […]
Mitigating Mental Health Impacts of Climate-Related Migration
As the changing climate continues to become an omnipresent element of life on earth, root causes of human migration will increasingly be attributable to climate-related disaster, climate-related land inhabitability, or climate-related conflict. This inevitability is accompanied by mental health consequences for affected individuals as a result of both forced migration and climate change. Forced migration […]
USCRI Welcomes Cameroon TPS Designation
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) welcomes the announcement by the Biden Administration on a new designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Cameroon. The TPS designation will provide needed protection to an estimated 40,000 Cameroonians to remain in the United States and to receive work permits. Due to ongoing armed conflict, over […]
