The U.S. admits too few refugees

The American commitment to protecting the persecuted is rooted in our founding conviction that all are created equal with certain unalienable rights, an idea inspired by the Judeo-Christian belief that all people are made in the image of God. The Bible warns that “anyone who withholds justice for the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow” is cursed.

Knowing how their support has bolstered the Trump administration, American Christians should feel an acute responsibility to critique these policies. Many have: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, chaired by conservative evangelical Tony Perkins, has urged a return to a historically normal ceiling on refugee admissions of 95,000 a year. The institutions representing the largest number of Christians in the U.S.—the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—have all been outspoken in urging the restoration of the refugee resettlement program and a rejection of the new asylum regulations.

But the bad policies persist and are poised to get worse. The best way to dissuade the Trump administration would be a clear outcry from Trump voters—not only organizations—particularly the conservative evangelicals on which the president knows he relies.