Published May 21, 2025
President Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The order says that the secretaries of state and homeland security may admit some refugees on a case-by-case basis if it’s in the national interest and poses no threat to the U.S.
Overall, this policy is a welcome reprieve from the mass movement of people into America that the Biden administration facilitated. The goal behind the order is to create a refugee admissions program in line with U.S. interests: one that enables refugees to assimilate, boosts state and local involvement in their resettlement and absorption, doesn’t reduce the availability of resources intended for Americans, and doesn’t threaten public safety or national security.
What’s missing from the order is a commitment to help Christian refugees. According to the nonprofit Open Doors, 4,476 Christians around the world were killed for faith-related reasons last year, and 4,744 were detained or imprisoned. Take Iranian Christians as an example. Those who have converted to Christianity from Islam and fled Iran would be severely persecuted if they were repatriated. Such people could easily be absorbed into well-assimilated Middle Eastern Christian communities in the U.S.
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Luma Simms, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies the life and thought of immigrants. As a humanist writer, she publishes on a broad range of topics, with a focus on the human (individual and communal), ethical, religious, and philosophical dimensions of immigration. She is particularly concerned with the crisis of rootlessness, identity, and dehumanization.
