Refugee Admissions and Catholic Social Teaching

This episode is about the suspension of the Refugee Admissions Program in the United States.  I’m going to outline the news story as it has unfolded in 2025, and then see what Catholic Social Teaching has to say.

Here are references and resources: 

1. Executive Order  Presidential Suspension of the Refugee Admissions Program - 01/20/2025
2. News Item from Our Sunday Visitor News  Trump Administration Terminates U.S. Bishops Refugee Resettlement Contract
3. Web page with news timeline provided by the International Rescue Committee  Refugee Assistance Program Suspension Impact on Refugees
4. Solidarity   Information from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website, including references to Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching.
5. Common Good and Community  Quotations from Church teaching provided by the Office for Social Justice of the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis MN
6. Executive Order  Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026 - 10/31/2025
7. Online Interview with Criminologist Regarding Immigrants and Crime  Data is clear that immigrants don’t increase crime in the United States, expert says
8. Online Article from the Wilson Center  Net Positive: New Government Study Finds Refugees and Asylees Contributed $123.8 Billion to the US Economy From 2005-2019

How to contact the White House with a message for the President or the Vice President:

– online form with comment section  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

– write a letter to: 

The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

– call:  Comments: 202-456-1111

How to contact your U.S. Senator or U.S. Congressperson:

Go to  https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member , enter your home address, and it will pull up names and contact information for your senators and congressperson

Transcript

Welcome to “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching,” where we take a brief look at specific stories in the news through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.  I’m your host, Tom Mulhern, and my hope is that this podcast will help us grow in our love of God and love of our neighbors.  

Today’s episode is about the suspension of the Refugee Admissions Program in the United States.  I’m going to outline the news story as it has unfolded in 2025, and then see what Catholic Social Teaching has to say.

First, though, I want to note that I have some past professional experience with refugee resettlement.  I was the Executive Director of a Catholic Charities organization in western Oregon when we started a refugee resettlement program back in 2015, working under the oversight of the USCCB.

When the Trump Administration returned to office in January 2025, one of the first things they did was suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.  What this meant immediately is that 10,000 refugees who had already been vetted and approved, and who were scheduled to travel to the United States, had their flights canceled overnight.  Many more refugees who weren’t as far along in the review process had their reviews suspended indefinitely.

So the immediate human impact of the suspension was devastating for thousands of people and families.  And just who are these people?  Well, refugees are people who are forced to leave their homes and flee their countries because of war, violence or persecution.  Let me tell you about the first family that the refugee resettlement program I was associated with received back in 2016.  They were a family from Syria, a mom and dad and two little boys.  Their home in Syria had been destroyed, one of their relatives had been killed, and they had fled to Turkey, where it took them a couple of years to get vetted and approved to become refugees to the United States.  

I wish you could have been at the airport with me when they arrived in Eugene, Oregon.  They were exhausted from their flights and you could see the apprehension on the parents' faces as they came into the terminal.  Then they saw more than 30 of us clapping and cheering and holding welcome signs in Arabic and English, and their apprehension turned to smiles of relief and a little embarrassment at being the center of all that attention.  That welcome committee at the airport included Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims, and in the following weeks and months many of the same people helped the Syrian family find and furnish an apartment, start English classes, find a job, and all the other steps involved in starting over in a new country.

Just over 100,000 refugees were resettled in the United States in fiscal year 2024, coming from 81 different countries of origin.  The top 5 countries of origin in 2024 were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria and Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Following the suspension of the program in January, national and community organizations throughout the United States had to drastically reduce refugee services and lay off staff, with no new refugees to resettle and no funding to assist recently-arrived refugees.

OK, let’s skip forward to October 2025.  Each year, the President is required to issue a determination that sets a cap for refugee resettlement for the coming fiscal year (October of one year through September of the next year).  

On October 31, 2025, President Trump issued the refugee admissions determination for FY 2026, the current fiscal year.  It sets a cap of 7,500 admissions for the year, which is lower than it’s ever been in the 45 year history of the program.  Since 1980, during Democratic and Republican administrations, the annual refugee admissions cap set by the president has only been lower than 70,000 during years that Donald Trump was in office.

The presidential determination for 2026 also states that, and I’m quoting here “The admissions numbers shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa pursuant to Executive Order 14204, and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands.”  end quote

So the presidential determination sets the refugee admission cap at an historically low level and says that those limited numbers will primarily be allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa.   In this episode I’m focusing on the overall reduction in refugees being admitted to the United States, and I’m not going to address the administration’s focus on Afrikaners from South Africa.  We’ll see how that plays out and perhaps look at it in a future episode.

The 2025 refugee admissions news story took a tragic turn in late November as I was getting ready to publish this episode.  An Afghani national is charged with attacking National Guardsmen on duty on the streets of Washington, DC, killing one and critically wounding another.  The suspect came to the United States through a special program designed to help Afghanis who had helped the United States during the 20 years of U.S. warfare in Afghanistan.  This is very much a developing news story and I will only touch on it in this episode.  

Which brings the news story up to the end of November 2025 when I am recording this episode.  So let’s see what Catholic social teaching has to say.

One of the major themes of Catholic social teaching is that of “solidarity.”  Here is a quote from the USCCB that summarizes the meaning of solidarity:

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. We are our brothers and sisters keepers, wherever they may be. Loving our neighbor has global dimensions in a shrinking world. And the quote goes on from there, but you get the idea.

There are many scripture passages that back up this view of solidarity based in love of neighbor.  To cite just one, in First Corinthians Chapter 12 verses 12-26 St. Paul compares the community to a single body made of many parts, concluding with “If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.”

And, from more recent Catholic Social Teaching, here is a quote from Pope St. John Paul II, in his encyclical Sollicitudo rei Socialis, On Social Concern, number 38:

"[Solidarity] is not a feeling of vague compassion or  shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On  the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to  the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual,  because we are all really responsible for all." End quote.  (St. John Paul II, On Social Concern [Sollicitudo rei Socialis], no. 38).  I want to emphasize what St. John Paul II is saying here.  He’s saying that solidarity is not a feeling, it’s a commitment to do something for the common good.

In the episode notes you’ll find links to these and other related quotes from scripture and Church teachings.

Well, it seems clear to me that the decision to abruptly suspend the refugee admissions program is contrary to the principle of solidarity as presented in Catholic teaching.  More than 10,000 vetted and approved refugees had their confirmed travel plans to the United States canceled overnight.  “Vetted and approved” means that the U.S. State Department had, through a review process that can take years in some cases, confirmed that these 10,000+ fellow human beings were fleeing war, violence or persecution and had no other viable options for the safety of themselves and their families.

In addition, the suspension of the refugee resettlement program through most of 2025 has shrunk the refugee resettlement network in the United States.  For example, the U.S. Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services program had to lay off one-third of its staff.  This has directly reduced our capacity as a nation to demonstrate solidarity with people who are trying to escape desperate circumstances.

Now, before wrapping up, I want to say a few words about the reasons given by the administration for suspending the refugee program.

The executive order suspending the program summarized its reasons for doing so with the following statement:  quote The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees. End quote.  The problem with these claims is that they don’t stand up to the facts:

– In terms of safety, studies consistently show that immigrants (including refugees) have significantly lower crime rates than the U.S.-born population, and that crime rates overall in the United States have gone down as the percentage of immigrants in the total population has increased.  The attack on the National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, while tragic and deplorable, doesn’t change the data.  Using this terrible but isolated incident to stoke animosity toward and take action against large numbers of refugees and immigrants is not based on the facts, and it is certainly not based in solidarity. 

– In terms of financial costs and benefits, a study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that, from 2005 to 2019, those who came here as refugees or asylum-seekers contributed $123.8 billion in net fiscal benefit to the United States. This means that they generated $123.8 billion dollars more in revenue from the taxes they paid and the economic activity they generated than was spent by the government to help them resettle.

– In terms of our ability as a country to absorb and ensure appropriate assimilation of refugees, when refugees come into this country through the regular admissions program, there is a local community group that agrees to help that refugee find housing, find work, learn English if necessary, and a lot more, as in the example of the Syrian family I shared earlier.  No other migrants have this kind of assimilation support waiting for them when they arrive, and it is incorrect to lump refugees in with other migrants on this point.

Well, let’s wrap up with a question: if we recognize that the recent suspension of the refugee admissions program is contrary to Catholic teaching on solidarity, what should we as Catholics do?

That’s up to each of us to decide.  I have three suggestions, three options for you to consider, and I’ve provided some links in the episode notes:

1. Pray.  Pray for those who are fleeing from violence and persecution.  Pray for the National Guard victims and their families  Pray for the refugee workers who have lost their jobs, and for the volunteers in communities all over this country who are ready and willing to help refugees resettle here.  And pray for those who have the power to change this decision, that they may experience a conversion of heart and mind.
2. Speak up.  Whether you consider yourself a supporter of the President or not, contact the President and let him know that you are a Catholic and you think that we can and should be doing more to welcome refugees, not less.  Contact your Senators and your Representative and tell them the same thing.  They can’t do much right now, but they need to know that there are Catholics in their state who care about refugees.
3. Get involved.  Contact the refugee resettlement program in your community or diocese, and give some of your time, talent or treasure.

That’s all for this episode of “Headline News and Catholic Social Teaching.”  I hope that it might help you, help us, live our lives guided by the Holy Spirit through the teachings of the Church.  If you want to dig deeper into this topic, I encourage you to check out the references and other information in the episode notes.  Thanks for listening.