A major Christian charity organization will be lobbying on behalf of displaced people in honor of the annual observance of World Refugee Day.
Church World Service, an ecumenical nonprofit that focuses on multiple issues, will hold an interfaith press conference on Thursday as part of an effort to advocate on behalf of refugees.
The press conference will feature former refugees, Members of Congress, and faith leaders gathered to reject the Trump administration’s policies towards refugees.
Meredith Owen, deputy director of Policy and Advocacy for CWS, told The Christian Post that the event was meant to spread awareness of “the negative impacts Trump’s Muslim and refugee travel bans have had on the refugee community.”
“[We will also] call on Congress to urge the administration to at least meet this year’s refugee admissions goal of 30,000 – a historic low – and commit to resettling 95,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2020 in line with historic norms,” said Owen.
“In conjunction with Refugee Council USA, we are holding a call in day, encouraging supporters to call their Members of Congress to support the GRACE Act and NO BAN Act.”
Owen explained to CP that CWS has been working with members of Congress to pass House Resolution 444, also known as “Reaffirming the importance of the United States to promote the safety, health, and well-being of refugees and displaced persons.”
“We have been working with Members of Congress on a bipartisan resolution (H.Res. 444) reaffirming the importance of the United States to promote the safety, health, and well-being of refugees,” Owen said. “The House Foreign Affairs Committee will be marking it up on Thursday.”
Last September, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the maximum number of refugees that will be resettled to the U.S. in fiscal year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019) will be 30,000, the lowest cap since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Michael Gryboski
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