Let this Passover mark our commitment to today’s refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants seeking safety and security for themselves and their families. HIAS PA welcomes the stranger, as we always will.
As we get ready for the celebration of the Jews’ exodus from slavery to freedom, from persecution to a promised land of safety and hope for the future, our hearts are heavy. How can it be otherwise, when we watch our own government persecute today’s refugees – in our own country? So this Passover message carries much more than wishes for a happy commemoration of that long ago journey. It brings you a message about the present day, where we stop to recognize, with horror and anger, our government’s abandonment of refugees who are doing nothing more than seeking the safety that is their due as a matter of American and international law as well as common humanity.
Every year, Jews around the world retell the story of Moses, of the parting of the red sea, of wandering in the desert for 40 years, of the final joy of reaching a destination full of promise. This year, HIAS Pennsylvania is writing to tell the story of our agency’s journey from humble beginnings as a group of volunteers in 1882 to an agency with a staff of 100 professionals providing refugee resettlement, social support services and immigration legal services just a year or two ago, to the current moment when we must downsize due to federal funding cuts. This change, which means we will inevitably serve fewer people, is all the more painful at a time when immigrants are threatened at every stage from arrival to citizenship. We nonetheless take these steps because we intend to remain strong four years from now and four years after that and after that. Through the long arc of our own history, this is but a moment in the desert that we know will eventually bend towards justice.
Before January 20, federal funding accounted for 70 percent of our budget because our government understood this country’s need for immigrants. Now, the government has terminated every single contract originally granted to agencies nationwide for resettling refugees in the United States. In addition, the administration has cancelled or is in the process of cancelling related contracts that have ensured newly arrived refugees can receive the support that they need – from employment to health and wellness services to English language access. We continue to advocate for refugees and we hope you will, too, by contacting Congress every single day to ask that the program be restored. But meanwhile, we are moving forward to protect those who are already here by focusing on immigration legal services.
More than ever before in this century, the legal assistance that we provide to immigrants has become a lifeline. Our clients find themselves held in detention without cause; children go unrepresented in court; and immigrants with strong cases for asylum are denied the right to request that legal protection. The list goes on.
We are restructuring to ensure for now that we can double down on helping our clients attain the legal standing that is their most basic necessity to stay in the U.S. In addition, we will continue to provide the legal support they need to work, live, and naturalize during their multi-year journey to citizenship. We will dedicate our resources to our team that defends people wrongly denied asylum, wrongly detained, and wrongly facing removal. Though smaller, we will retain a legal team of unique breadth and depth in the region’s nonprofit immigration legal services community.
We have been here before in our 143-year history. For decades before the expansion of federal funding that began in 2020, we were a small but mighty legal team of about twenty. Even after painful reductions today, we will have a similar-sized staff, each with years of experience. They come from multiple cultures, speak multiple languages, and are passionate about every client.
We are fortunate that foundations and generous individuals are stepping up to support us and advance this critical work. And we know we are fortunate to be part of an organization that has lasted through many eras of anti-immigrant sentiment. This Passover, whether or not you are celebrating that long ago journey from persecution to safety, know that HIAS Pennsylvania will always be welcoming the stranger, fighting vigorously for our newcomers’ safety in their new homes, recognizing all they bring to us, because once, we were strangers too.
Sincerely,
Cathryn Miller-Wilson
Executive Director
