Chicago—September 17, 2018—The Trump Administration has announced that the United States will accept only 30,000 refugees for resettlement in 2019, a record-low number that represents a 33 percent reduction from the current resettlement cap. Oscar Chacón, executive director of Alianza Americas, issued this statement in response:

“The Trump administration has spent the last 20-plus months steadily rolling back the clock of progress in our country, and this short-sighted decision is no different, erasing nearly 40 years of work in welcoming refugee families. The United States’ refugee resettlement cap now sits at its lowest number since 1980, the year the program began. This is unconscionable in a country with a tradition as a safe harbor and refuge for the world’s most vulnerable.

Trump’s decision does not represent the generous spirit of the American people. The people of the United States recognize both our humanitarian responsibility to support people fleeing violence and our capacity to welcome refugees.

Alianza Americas joins the call for the White House to reconsider this mean-spirited decision, and to welcome at least 75,000 refugees to our communities next year. On the heels of draconian changes to asylum policy, the heartbreaking separation of families fleeing violence, and the stripping of protections from TPS holders, cuts to our refugee resettlement program are further evidence that the United States of America is losing its way.

Make no mistake: Lives are at stake.  With every refugee family who is turned away, every asylum seeker who is deported or detained, real human beings—our brothers and sisters—will suffer, and some will die. We cannot afford to stay silent any longer.”

Alianza Americas is a network of 50 immigrant-led organizations representing more than 100,000 families across the United States. It is the only US-based organization rooted in Latino and Caribbean immigrant communities that works transnationally to create an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable way of life. Learn more at alianzaamericas.org.

‍