America Should Remain a Beacon of Hope for the Persecuted

By Chelsea Sobolik & Matthew Soerens

Friday, April 18, 2025

 

This week, Christians around the world reflect upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. As we do so, we are also mindful of the estimated 380 million people globally who face a threat of persecution — and sometimes even martyrdom — because of their faith in Jesus. That’s roughly one in seven Christians globally.

 

President Trump has rightly drawn the world’s attention to the plight of the persecuted church and of others who suffer in countries without our constitutional protection of religious freedom. Last week, the U.S. State Department took steps designed to eliminate anti-Christian bias within the U.S. State Department. In his first term, President Trump highlighted religious freedom before the United Nations, convened a first-of-its-kind international religious freedom summit, and carved out a special category within the U.S. refugee resettlement program for those fleeing religious persecution. In setting the annual refugee admissions ceiling at 50,000 during his first week of his first term, he prioritized “refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.”

 

That connection between the persecuted church and refugee resettlement is often overlooked, but the harsh reality is that, when those persecuted for their faith make the difficult decision to flee their homelands, the United States has long stood as a beacon of religious freedom. Last year, roughly 100,000 refugees were lawfully resettled in the United States. Most were Christians of one Christian tradition or another — and most of those Christian refugees, roughly 30,000, came from the 50 countries where persecuted church watchdog Open Doors says that Christians face the most severe persecution.

 

In the past couple months, however, no persecuted Christians have been resettled to the United States as refugees, because the resettlement program has been suspended, at least temporarily, for a 90-day review. Per the terms of a Day One executive order, President Trump, weighing the guidance of his secretary of homeland security and secretary of state, will decide whether he believes it is in the national interest to resume refugee resettlement. We have joined more than 17,000 Christians who have signed a statement urging the president to resume refugee resettlement at least at the 50,000 ceiling that he set in the first month of his first term, and with a particular (though not exclusive) concern for those persecuted for their faith.

 

The most common objections to refugee resettlement are, in our experience, largely based on conflation with other immigration processes. President Trump has championed the need to ensure secure borders — and we agree, at least in part because we want to preserve religious freedom both for Americans and for those from abroad who need a safe place to which to flee. An open borders policy that could allow terrorists and other persecutors access to the U.S. would put all of our rights at risk. But the unambiguously legal resettlement process — where individuals apply overseas and undergo a screening process described by the Heritage Foundation as involving “more vetting than any other immigrants to the U.S.,” then arrive via airplanes (not the border) — actually contributes to a more secure border.

 

When legitimate refugees have some hope of resettlement via an orderly, legal process, fewer reach the point of desperation where they might make a dangerous journey to the border in hopes of seeking asylum. With fewer asylum seekers who turn themselves in and require processing and attention, the U.S. Border Patrol can better focus on its primary mission of intercepting potential threats to the United States.

 

Another concern with resettlement relates to the fiscal costs associated with vetting refugees abroad and with the initial support that they receive. But by administering these funds through a public-private partnership with nonprofit organizations, most of which (like World Relief) are faith-based, the governmental funds are augmented by privately raised funds and church-based volunteer hours, ensuring that refugees integrate well. These limited funds present a great investment for the United States, because resettled refugees pay back their plane tickets over time and the expenditure of taxpayer funds is eventually more than recouped by taxes paid by refugees themselves, who also fill key holes in the U.S. labor market. A study by economists at the University of Notre Dame finds that, by 20 years after arrival, the average refugee adult has contributed $21,000 more in taxes (at all levels) than the combined costs of governmental expenditures on their behalf.

 

An innovative private sponsorship process known as the Welcome Corps, begun in 2023, is an even better deal for taxpayers. It shifts most of the initial resettlement costs from the U.S. government to church groups or other groups of Americans who sponsor a specific refugee languishing overseas and agree to be responsible (financially and in terms of volunteer hours) for their initial resettlement. That process has been particularly valuable for American Christians who know of specific refugees abroad who have been forced to flee their homelands because of their faith whom they are allowed to sponsor — but it, too, has been suspended.

 

Whether or not President Trump resumes refugee resettlement on some scale will determine whether a persecuted Afghan convert to Christianity in hiding in Pakistan is allowed to rebuild his life in North Carolina, where his sponsorship team is awaiting him, or if he is again deported to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Whether an Iranian convert is ever able to join his family — resettled last year after waiting for a decade in Indonesia — in California. “We pray about it every night. Every day. Every morning. Every moment,” says his mother. “We just pray for our son’s situation — to join us, and that God will open the doors for him to come with his family and start a new life in the United States.”

 

We join in that prayer, as do thousands of other believers. This week — of all weeks — would be a fitting occasion for the tens of thousands who face persecution for their faith abroad to receive a renewed hope of rebuilding a new life in the United States.