“Since World War II, our government has been committed to allowing fully vetted refugees escaping persecution abroad to settle and begin new lives in the US. While the number to be admitted has varied and has never truly met the need, the proposed figure of 45,000 is unconscionably low — less than half the number proposed by President Obama nearly a year ago. In fact it is a pittance — according to the United Nations, 25 million individuals are registered now as refugees overseas, and over half are children. The UN predicts that 34,000 people will be newly displaced from their homes every day because of violence, persecution, and war. Lowering the number not only impacts refugees currently promised admission to the US, but would derail our entire system of refugee resettlement as we know it.

“The Trump administration has cited the need for national security, but the truth is, extensive vetting is already part of the process. The administration’s policy is not based on real fears of harm refuges might do, but on stoking xenophobia and nativism, driven in part by white nationalist and political advisor Stephen Miller. It is of a piece with the Muslim ban imposed last January that is making its way to the Supreme Court after suffering numerous challenges to its discriminatory nature from private parties and state governments.

“We face the largest refugee crisis in global history. As citizens we must demand that our government maintain its leadership as it asks other countries in the global community to do their share. As Jews, based on our values and our history, we must demand that the US do more — much more — to help those in need, many of whom sit in limbo in refugee camps for years and whose only hope is to find a new country to call home.”