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U.S. Refugee Program Concerns for Fiscal Years 2005-2006
Updated May 2, 2005

 Refugee Admissions
At the close of fiscal year (FY) 2004, the United States had admitted 52,895 refugees for resettlement. While this fell short of the 70,000 refugee target set by the President, it marked a significant increase over the previous two years, when under 29,000 refugees were admitted annually. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and other advocates are pleased with this progress, but remain concerned that admissions still fail to meet the needs of refugees around the world.

For FY 2005, the Bush Administration once again set a goal of 70,000 refugee admissions. While HIAS believes that a program of 90,000 would better address refugee needs, the goal of 70,000 keeps the program stable and will permit the United States to offer protection to Jews and other religious minorities from the former Soviet Union and Iran, as well as vulnerable migrants from Sudan, Burma, and Colombia, and other refugee producing countries around the world. As of the end of April 2005, just over 23,700refugees had been resettled in the U.S. HIAS is concerned that at this rate of resettlement, the U.S. government will not meet the President’s target for 2005.

Funding Shortfalls
The Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account is the State Department's principal refugee budget line. For FY 2005, MRA has received $763.609 million in funding, an increase over the President's request of $730 million, but significantly less than the amount supported by HIAS and Refugee Council USA. However, this funding is not sufficient to reach the President’s target of 70,000 refugee admissions. HIAS has received assurances from the White House and the State Department that they are trying to address the funding shortfall. A supplemental spending bill will likely include approximately $26 million for the MRA account. These additional funds would allow for the resettlement of up to 55,000 refugees – still far short of 70,000, but a significant improvement over what would be possible with the originally appropriated funds.

The Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) account has been appropriated at a $29.75 million level. HIAS and Refugee Council organizations recommended funding at the level of $50 million, so as to allow the U.S. increased flexibility to respond to volatile refugee situations around the world.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides for refugees once they have arrived in the U.S., including for the care of unaccompanied alien children, torture victims, and trafficking victims. For FY 2005, ORR was appropriated $484.283 million, with up to $9.92 million reserved for trafficking victims. This was a decrease from the amount recommended by HIAS and the Refugee Council USA organizations - $650 million - but an increase over the President's proposal of $473 million. HIAS is concerned that ORR is not being funded at a sufficiently high level to support its wide-ranging functions, including the Matching Grant program, social services grants, and flexible discretionary grant programs.

Outlook for Fiscal Year 2006
The President’s FY06 budget includes $892.77 million in funding for the Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account. This marks a significant increase over the Administration’s request for FY05 – $730 million – and over the appropriation by Congress for FY05 – $763.6 million. Within the MRA account, the President has set aside $223 million for the refugee admissions program, which would allow the resettlement of approximately 65,000 refugees. While this would still fall slightly short of recent years’ Presidential Determinations to admit 70,000 refugees, this level of funding is considerably higher than in past years and shows a renewed commitment to refugee resettlement.

For the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) account, the Administration proposed to set funding at $40 million, which is $20 million more than the President’s request last year and $10 million more than Congress’ appropriation.

The FY06 budget includes $552.04 million for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), with $479 million for refugee and entrant assistance, $10 million for victims of torture, and $63 million for unaccompanied alien minors (with up to $9.915 million of the total sum reserved for trafficking victims). This marks an increase over both the Administration’s request for FY05 - $473 million – and the final Congressional appropriation - $484.28 million.

HIAS and Refugee Council USA are working to support the President’s budget proposal for FY06. HIAS is hopeful that these additional funds would allow the U.S. government to expand overseas refugee assistance and protection work and allow for the admission of 90,000 refugees.

Governmental Support for the Refugee Program
While admissions have suffered a downturn in recent years and funding shortfalls threaten to hinder the program, U.S. leaders continue to affirm the importance of welcoming refugees into our country. In June 2004 President Bush met with young refugees from Liberia and Sudan at a Conference of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Following this meeting, he included these comments in his speech to the conference:

“…our great nation receives tens of thousands of refugees, which is good, by the way that America be a welcoming society. These souls flee persecution and need help when they come to our country. Not only are there people in our neighborhoods who are addicted and lonely and homeless and hungry, there are people who've come from far-away lands that need the same concern and care and love that our fellow citizens receive… In other words, we got problems in this society. And those of us who have been given the high honor of holding office must utilize every resource, every power we have to help solve those problems for the good of the country.”

Members of the House of Representatives have also taken an important step to support refugees by creating the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus in the House of Representatives. The Refugee Caucus is chaired by Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and John Conyers (D-MI), and has over 60 members. The Refugee Caucus serves as an important forum to promote refugee protection around the world and to reverse the dramatic decline in admissions at home.

On the structural side, James Ziglar, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), proposed creating a Refugee Corps within the agency just prior to leaving office in 2002. With transfer of BCIS functions to the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, the need for a permanent, professional staff, charged with addressing the changing dynamics of the U.S. Refugee Program became even more important. While implementation of the Refugee Corps program has been slow to get underway, DHS’ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is actively moving forward with this process and will shortly begin its work.

HIAS’ Refugee Resettlement
 HIAS and its resettlement network of Jewish communal social service agencies are resettling an increasingly diverse population of refugees from throughout the world. During the 1990s, HIAS-resettled refugees were overwhelmingly from the former Soviet Union, with a much smaller but steadier flow of refugees from Iran. This began to change in the early 2000s, as the number of refugees from the former Soviet Union declined dramatically, while an increasing number of refugees came from other regions of the world, especially Africa and South Asia. The percentage of HIAS refugees consisting of these new populations has jumped from 4% in FY 2002 to 24% thus far in FY 2005.

The number of affiliates resettling non-traditional refugees has grown from two in 2002 to ten in 2005. Several others are considering expanding their resettlement programs to new populations in the coming year. A total of 12 affiliates will participate in a three-day conference on non-traditional resettlement and new refugee populations later this month in Tucson, Arizona.

The great majority of these new refugee populations are free cases – those with no relatives in the U.S. – the most demanding resettlement caseload. This year nine affiliates resettled free cases, three of these for the first time. This growing interest in new resettlement populations demonstrates the continuing commitment of many Jewish communities to a strong and diverse resettlement program.