Jen Smyers is director of policy and advocacy for the immigration and refugee program of Church World Service (CWS).
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Welcoming Refugees Requires More Than Words
12-17-2019
As told to Sojourners.
Activists outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in 2019 / Olivier Douliery / AFP via Getty Images
“WE'D NEVER ORGANIZED civil disobedience around refugee resettlement before—we’ve never really had to. Refugee resettlement has always had bipartisan support.
But when there was news the administration would again be cutting the refugee resettlement number, a lot of folks—especially from religious communities—felt we had to respond in a way that was different from what we had done before. I mean, how many times can you write a scathing statement expressing outrage, right?