This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Choose to Challenge.” Every day, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) unwaveringly commits to challenging gender inequality in all of the work we do with refugees, immigrants and other vulnerable people worldwide. For this year, however, we would like to recognize the indomitable courage of […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
Policy Recommendations to Improve the Protection and Care for Unaccompanied Children
Thousands of refugee and immigrant children come to the United States alone or with their families each year, many having fled life-threatening dangers in their countries of origin. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, more than 69,000 unaccompanied children entered the custody of the U.S. federal government. Unaccompanied children (UCs) are under 18 years old, have […]
USCRI Advocates for Independent United Nations Inquiry on Missing Tigray Refugees
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is an international non-governmental organization that has advocated for the human rights of refugees and immigrants for 110 years. USCRI is gravely concerned about the 20,000 refugees from the refugee camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia who are missing. There is strong evidence that some of […]
USCRI Statement on President’s Executive Orders on Refugee Resettlement and Immigration
by Eskinder Negash USCRI is greatly encouraged by newly elected President’s actions to restore the country’s robust refugee resettlement program and other paths to immigration . The President has pledged to raise the annual refugee admissions ceiling from its historic low of 15,000 to 125,000 beginning next fiscal year. He has signed Executive Orders this […]
Policy & Legislative Recommendations to Improve Protection and Assistance for Foreign National Victims
As we welcome a new presidential administration in the United States, we too welcome the opportunity for increasing our knowledge, action and responsiveness on human trafficking, particularly for the protection and assistance of victims. In the United States, the scope of both domestic and foreign-national human trafficking is significant. Although the exact figures are unknown, […]
Out of the Cold: Forced Marriage Trafficking Victims Need to Be Included in U.S. Definition
The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) was passed into law in October 2000 by Congress and President Clinton. At the time, it was praised as a bipartisan solution to address human trafficking as a distinct crime. Prior to 2000, human trafficking crimes were prosecuted using several different federal and state statutes that […]
Safe Processing and Transport of Arriving Unaccompanied Children in a Public Health Emergency
Overview At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order to limit entry at the U.S. southern border. The CDC invoked a comprehensive quarantine power based in an expansive reading of Title 42 of U.S. Code[1]—added in the 1940s—to override protections that Congress explicitly required, such […]
Unaccompanied Children, UC Care Providers, and Planning for the End of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Since the outset of the pandemic, care providers have worked diligently to maintain the health and safety of the unaccompanied children (UCs) in their care. COVID-19 hit congregate-care facilities especially hard, which meant that staff had to adjust to changing practices around exposures and maintaining safety, emerging best-practices based on new information, new protocols, and […]
The Crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Origins of the Crisis Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ephemeral Periods of Peace While the most recent humanitarian crisis was sparked by escalated conflict starting in 1994, the roots of the modern conflict and accompanying humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (hereinafter “DRC”) are rooted in the country’s tumultuous history and its […]
The U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services | Similar but Unequal
In early August 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced a final rule significantly raising the fees associated with certain immigration and naturalization benefit requests – by a weighted average of around 20 per cent.1 The agency included the decision to charge asylum seekers a $50 […]
