New York, NY-Today, the US Immigration Policy Center released a blockbuster report laying out the benefits of refugee resettlement. The report comes after a series of horrific photos of US Customs and Border Protection agents using their horse's reins as whips against Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande River sparked outrage. The Biden White House’s continued use of a Trump-era policy change to ignore immigration law and deport Haitian asylum seekers en masse has sparked outrage. While explicitly focused on the US refugee resettlement program, the new report indicates that there are no long-term fiscal costs to local and state communities of refugee resettlement. At the same time, the cultural and social benefits are immense.
Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition:
“The latest report from the bipartisan US Immigration Policy Center reaffirms what we already know—that refugees are hugely beneficial to the revitalization of local economies. Nowhere was this more evident than in Western New York, where refugees have added to several towns' cultural, social, and economic vitality. As the Biden administration cruelly turns their back to our moral and legal obligations to protect Haitian refugees and the American economy struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, this report underscores the numerous benefits of refugee resettlement. The data in this report reveal that President Biden can revitalize state and local economies and meet his commitment to rebuild our nation’s refugee program.”
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