(ENS) Calling it “the beginning of the end to US hospitality to refugees,” C. Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, strongly criticized the Bush administration’s imposition of a 70,000-person ceiling on refugee admissions for fiscal 2003.

In a statement released October 23, Parkins said the ceiling “sends the unfortunate message that the United States is retreating from its commitment to rescue a significant number of the world’s persecuted persons.”

“The US Government has over the past ten years backed away from the more generous admissions ceilings of past years,” said Parkins. “This is occurring against a background of an increasing number of refugees worldwide—now 15,000,000—with more countries forcing refugees to find safety in countries whose own political and economic systems are fragile. In short, the world refugee crisis provides no basis for a scaled back resettlement program by the nation which once provided leadership in this program of humanitarian rescue.”

Parkins also pointed out that the ceiling “is also a questionable target,” since some 20,000 are “unallocated” — meaning unassigned to any region of the world. “This implies that the Government has determined that 50,000 is the realistic target,” Parkins said, representing the lowest number of projected refugee arrivals in xx years.

According to Parkins, concerns about national security and the “war on terrorism” are not valid reasons for reducing refugee admissions. “We reject the notion that advancing national security and honoring our national tradition of hospitality to persecuted persons are incompatible goals,” he stated. In fact, he said, reduced US willingness to accept refugees for resettlement can further destabilize volatile regional situations, as neighboring nations become less willing to serve as countries of first asylum.

In his statement, Parkins raised the possibility that the admissions ceiling is not a reaction to the events of September 11, 2001, but “a serious attempt to permanently downsize the US resettlement program.”

“As Christians, we are called to welcome the stranger and to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. Refugees fit the definition,” he concluded. “We must, therefore, not permit a modest number of refugee arrivals to our shore to suffice as our response to a burgeoning humanitarian crisis.”

(—The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service.)

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