[R]UTLAND — Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is calling on the United States to strengthen its commitment to refugee resettlement on the eve of a congressional hearing on the Obama administration’s pledge to take in 110,000 refugees next year, an increase of 25,000 from fiscal 2016.
At the same time Leahy said additional resources need to be allocated to communities that receive refugees. His remarks come as the State Department weighs whether Syrian refugees will be placed in Rutland.
“As we have seen in Vermont for decades,” Leahy said in a statement Tuesday, “refugees can enrich and revitalize our cities and towns, but they also need our help, especially at first.”
Leahy said the numbers can seem overwhelming — globally there are an estimated 65 million displaced people — but that the “refugee resettlement program is an important part of who we are as a country.”
In late August, the Obama administration reached its goal of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States and has indicated that it will aim to “admit a significantly higher number” in fiscal year 2017, according to the State Department’s most recent proposal.
At least 40,000 refugees among the planned total of 110,000 will come from the Near East and South Asia, a region that includes Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The ongoing war in Syria has created nearly 5 million refugees, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
The final number of refugees to be admitted in the United States is determined in consultation with the House and Senate Judiciary committees but does not require congressional approval. That meeting took place earlier this month. Leahy is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
According to a Leahy aide who wouldn’t be named, the meeting addressed the role of the refugee program in American history and as it relates to national security, and the value of immigrants and refugees to many communities.
However, there are deep divisions among members of the committee.
Days after the Obama administration announced it would seek to admit 110,000 refugees in fiscal 2017, Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, issued a statement arguing that refugees pose a threat to national security and are a burden on the national debt.
Sessions described the proposed increase as “reckless and extreme.” He is an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, who has called for a ban on all refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries. Recently a newspaper reported that Sessions’ chief of staff had been paid by the Trump campaign.
The Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest will hold an oversight hearing Wednesday for the fiscal 2017 resettlement program. Representatives of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services will testify.
Bill Frelick, director of the Refugee Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, called the recent backlash against refugee resettlement unprecedented. Frelick, who has worked in the field for more than 30 years, said that historically refugee resettlement has been an issue on which both political parties have agreed. That came to an end in November after the terrorist attacks in Paris, when more than 30 U.S. governors signed a letter saying their states would not admit Syrian refugees.
According to a recent report from the Congressional Research Service, in the past year Syrians have been resettled in 40 states — from California and New York to Iowa and North Dakota. An analysis by The New York Times found that 231 towns and cities in the U.S. have accepted Syrian refugees since 2012. The Times noted that most have been settled in medium-size cities.
Boise, Idaho, for example, with a population of just over 200,000, has accepted more refugees than New York and Los Angeles combined. Smaller cities like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Fargo, North Dakota, have also taken in Syrian refugees. To date Vermont has not resettled Syrians. However, since 2008 more than 200 Iraqi refugees have been placed in the state.
In late April, Rutland Mayor Chris Louras announced that the city had been proposed as a resettlement site and if selected would be accepting up to 100 Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The mayor has said that an influx of refugees would help drive economic growth and contribute to the city’s revitalization.
Some residents have criticized the mayor as secretive about the process and raised concerns about security and resources.
Vermont’s congressional delegation has supported the mayor’s effort to bring refugees to Rutland. A decision by the State Department is expected in October.
