THIS FORM IS FOR INDIVIDUAL FAITH LEADERS. IF YOU ARE SIGNING ON BEHALF OF AN ORGANIZATION, PLEASE USE THIS FORM: https://forms.gle/2PodkMNuT6CKeY8M7

[DATE]

Dear Members of Congress,

As XX religious leaders and XX faith-based organizations across faith traditions, we write to express our strong support for the Guaranteed Refugee Ceiling Enhancement Act (GRACE Act), which would restore U.S. leadership on refugee resettlement and uphold our nation's commitment to provide safety for refugees fleeing persecution. The GRACE Act (H.R.2146 / S.1088) would set a minimum floor for the annual refugee admissions goal ("Presidential Determination") at 95,000 - the historic average. The bill would also ensure that the administration treat the Presidential Determination as a goal to reach and mandate quarterly reports to Congress with specific oversight requirements.

We are called by our sacred texts to love our neighbor, accompany the vulnerable, and welcome the sojourner. Our congregations, synagogues, and mosques have historically played key roles in assisting refugees with housing, language learning, employment, and social supports necessary for rapid and effective integration into U.S. communities. War, conflict, and persecution have forced millions to leave their homes, creating more refugees than at any other time in history. Yet, our commitment to offer refuge from violence and persecution is being undermined by our government’s abdication of moral leadership.

Resettlement is the last resort for refugees who cannot return to their home country for reasons of personal safety, and who cannot stay in the country into which they have fled. Not only is it our moral duty as a nation to do our fair share to welcome the world’s most vulnerable, but we know that resettling refugees helps advance our strategic foreign policy interests. Since its inception in 1980, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has been an international model of public-private partnership, with broad bipartisan support. The USRAP has successfully provided more than three million refugees the ability to start over in safety, and in turn, refugees have enriched our communities. Refugees are the most scrutinized travelers to the United States and face the most rigorous screening possible, spending roughly two years in exhaustive vetting processes by our nation’s top security and counter-terror experts.

The Trump administration has reduced refugee resettlement by 75%, setting this year’s admissions goal at 30,000 – the lowest level in U.S. history. Given that there are more than 25 million refugees worldwide — more than half of whom are children — these numbers are shockingly low. To arbitrarily restrict tens of thousands of people from seeking safety forsakes our nation’s values of compassion and welcome.

Given the many ongoing and emerging displacement crises around the world, people of faith will not stand by idly as the United States turns its back on refugees. We urge the administration to meet its own goal of resettling 30,000 refugees this year, and to commit to resettling at least 75,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2020. Our collective scriptural mandate and our nation’s history and capabilities as a world leader demand no less. Faith communities remain ready and eager to welcome refugees. For decades, people of faith have welcomed refugees, who are powerful ambassadors of the American ideals of equal opportunity, religious freedom, and liberty and justice for all. Our experiences working alongside refugees mirror the statistics that demonstrate that refugees bring tangible benefits to U.S. communities by starting businesses, becoming homeowners, revitalizing local economies, and contributing as civic leaders.

We pray that in your process of discernment, compassion for the plight of refugees will touch your hearts. We urge you to co-sponsor the GRACE Act and be bold in choosing moral, just policies that provide refuge for vulnerable individuals seeking protection. At no other time has our moral responsibility to uphold these principles been greater.

Sincerely,

Faith-based Organizations

Faith Leaders