A picture taken on March 16, 2017 shows African Christian migrants praying at a hill church near the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece. (Photo: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI via Getty Images)
In his relentless push to cut the number of refugees admitted to the U.S., President Donald Trump has ended up hurting members of a group he once pledged to protect ― Christians fleeing persecution in countries where they are unable to freely practice their faith.
Early in his presidency, Trump promised his evangelical base that Christian refugees would be prioritized. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at a summit organized by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association last year, told the world’s persecuted Christians, “We stand with you.” And over the summer, the State Department made overtures illustrating its commitment to protecting persecuted minorities, organizing an international conference about the importance of religious freedom.
And yet, the White House has made it harder for these persecuted minorities to find a safe haven on America’s shores.
A statue of the Virgin Mary is seen in a church near Ankawa refugee camp in Erbil, Iraq September 12, 2018. (Photo: Azad Lashkari / Reuters)
According to State Department data, the number of Christian refugees admitted into the U.S. has declined dramatically since President Barack Obama left the White House. In the fiscal year 2016, which ended on Sept. 30, 2016, while Obama was still in power, the U.S. admitted about 37,500 Christian refugees. In the fiscal year 2017, the number of resettled Christian refugees dipped to around 25,200. And so far in the fiscal year 2018, which ends Sept. 30, the number of resettled Christian refugees is closer to 14,600.
Between fiscal years 2017 and 2018, the number of resettled Christian refugees declined about 40 percent. Compared to 2016, under Obama, this year’s number represents a cut of about 60 percent.
Even though the number of Christian refugees has shrunk overall, the data suggest that Christians now take up a larger percentage of new refugee arrivals. That’s partly due to a staggering drop in Muslim refugee admissions. In the fiscal year 2016, the U.S. admitted about 38,900 Muslim refugees. That number shrunk to around 3,200 in the current fiscal year ― a decline of over 90 percent.
The cuts are fallout from the Trump administration’s tough stance on legal immigration. In 2017, Trump placed America’s refugee admissions cap at 45,000 ― the lowest level it’s been since the program was established in 1980. Reports suggest the White House is considering making even harsher cuts to refugee admissions in the fiscal year 2019.
Christian Orthodox Iranian migrants hold icons during a Mass at a church in Idomeni, Greece, March 20, 2016. (Photo: Alexandros Avramidis / Reuters)
Along with instituting a temporary ban on all refugee admissions, the administration has also reportedly established complicated new behind-the-scenes vetting procedures that have slowed down admissions. As a result, even though the admission ceiling was officially set at 45,000, experts estimate that the U.S. is actually on track to take in only about 20,000 total refugees in the fiscal year 2018 ― far fewer than the rest of the world, according to the Pew Research Center
“Ironically, these policies, while clearly aimed at Muslim refugees, ensure that Christians and other religious minorities from many of the countries on Trump’s list of suspect travel ban nations are also kept out,” Mary Giovagnoli, director of Refugee Council USA, told NBC. “It suggests that the president has no real interest in religious persecution or the tenets of religious freedom.”
Ethiopian Coptic migrants arrive for a Mass at the makeshift Orthodox church in a migrant camp in Calais, northern France, on October 30, 2016. (Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
While many rank-and-file white evangelical Christians support the administration’s stance on refugees, prominent voices within evangelical Christianity are also speaking up on behalf of persecuted religious minorities.
The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of eight evangelical organizations united around immigration issues, has been pushing for the White House to raise the refugee admissions cap for the fiscal year 2019. More than 400 local pastors and lay leaders have signed the coalition’s letter to the White House about this cause.
Galen Carey, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, pressed Trump to allow at least 75,000 refugees to resettle in the U.S. over the next year.
“Over the past 40 years, American evangelical Christians have opened their hearts and homes to hundreds of thousands of refugees, including many persecuted believers who would otherwise not be alive today,” Carey said in a statement. “This extraordinary ministry of mercy has nearly ground to a halt as the sharp reduction in refugee resettlement approvals has left tens of thousands of refugees stranded in dangerous refugee camps and settlements.”
A woman looks through a window of rescue ship 'Aquarius' as more the 380 migrants arrive in the port of Cagliari, Sardinia, on May 26, 2016, two days after being rescued near the Libyan coasts.
2016, Turkey
Syrians woman holds her children after 50 refugees captured by Turkish coast guard while they were illegally trying to reach Greece's Kastellorizo island, in shores of Kas District of Antalya, southern province of Turkey on February 24, 2016.
2016, Syria
Syrian women sit next to the fence during a sandstorm at a temporary refugee camp in the village of Ain Issa, housing people who fled Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold Raqa, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the group's de facto capital on November 10, 2016.
2016, France
Kurdish Iraqi women leave aboard a bus the 'Jungle' migrant camp in Calais, northern France, on October 12, 2016, for a reception and guidance centre (CAO - Centre d'accueil et d'orientation).
2016, Serbia
Migrants and refugees walk on January 8, 2016 after crossing the Macedonian border in the Serbian village of Miratovac.
2016, Iraq
Iraqis women displaced from the city of Fallujah queue up to collect aid distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council at a newly opened camp where they are taking shelter in Amriyat al-Fallujah on June 27, 2016, south of Fallujah.
2015, Germany
Houda, 48, hugs her son Ihab, 30, a Syrian migrant from Deir al-Zor, as he and his family arrive at the railway station in Lubeck, Germany September 18, 2015. Picture taken September 18, 2015.
2015, Greece
Syrian refugee mother carries her child off a dinghy after arriving at a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey September 18, 2015.
2015, Greece
A woman and a child peer from a bus, after migrants and refugees disembarked from a government chartered ferry, seen in reflection, in the port of Piraeus in Athens on November 27, 2015.
2015, Aegean Sea
Refugees and migrants arrive at Lesbos island after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 27, 2015.
2015, Turkey
Syrians fleeing the war rush through broken down border fences to enter Turkish territory illegally, near the Turkish border crossing at Akcakale in Sanliurfa province on June 14, 2015.
2015, Greece
A woman hugs a baby wrapped in an emergency blanket as refugees and migrants arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on October 1, 2015.
2015, Greece
A woman reacts as she arrived with other refugees on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey on a inflatable boat on October 1, 2015 near village of Skala Sikaminias, Greece.
2015, Aegean Sea
A woman falls into the water with her child as they disembark off a dinghi as refugees and migrants arrive at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, on October 2, 2015.
2015, Rwanda
A Burundian woman carries laundry at the Gashora refugee camp in Gashora, Bugesera, Rwanda Wednesday April 29, 2015.
2015, Croatia
A stampede occurs as Middle Eastern refugees rush to find space on a train headed to Beli Manastir on September 18, 2015 in Tovarnik, Croatia.
2014, Uganda
A South Sudanese woman sleeps on January 7, 2014 at the Ochaya Rhino refugee camp in the Arua District, about 495 kilometres north west of Uganda's capital Kampala.
2014, Turkey
This old woman lost all her power after reaching Turkey coming from Syria, on September 30, 2014.
2014, Syria
Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014.
2014, Iraq
An 80 year old women becomes overwhelmed by the trauma of walking for 2 days from Qaraqosh is waiting to receive medical attention, in Irbil, Iraq, on August 10, 2014.
2014, Central African Republic
A refugee pullo woman holds her child while he receives care at a centre for displaced muslims fleeing the anti-balaka militia, in Yaloke, some 200 km east of Bangui, on May 4, 2014.
2013, France
A Roma woman cries after the announcement of their eviction from an illegal camp on the bank of the Var river in Nice, southeastern France, November 21, 2013.
2013, Iraq
Close-up of a young syrian refugee face with blue eyes in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq on Sep. 21, 2013.
2012, Thailand
A Burmese woman waits for food rations to be given out at the Thai Burmese Border Center inside the Mae La refugee camp June 7, 2012 in Tak province, Thailand.
2011, Kenya
A newly registered Somali refugee supports herself on a chain-link perimeter fence outside a registration and medical aid facility at the Dadaab Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in eastern Kenya on July 23, 2011 where the influx of Somali's displaced by a ravaging famine remains high.
2010, Darfur
An internally displaced woman uses a pick-axe to chip off clay to make bricks at Abu Shouk IDP's camp in Al Fasher, northern Darfur April 14, 2010.
2009, Bosnia
Milena Gavric, a 90-year-old Bosnian Serb refugee, holds her head as she waits for a U.N. delegation to visit her collective center in Srebrenica August 26, 2009.
2009, Kenya
Mako Bakar Bakaro, who lost a leg in fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia in 2008, stands against the wall of her hut August 21, 2009 in a refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya.
2008, Algeria
A Sahrawi woman walks with a stick at Dakhla's refugee camp, near Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, April 16, 2008.
2008, Afghanistan
An Afghan refugee woman cries after troops arrest her relative during a search operation in the Afghan refugee camp in Karachi on December 2, 2008.
2006, Lebanon
A woman gestures from a van carrying displaced people, one of thousands of civilians fleeing their southern villages as a forty eight hour halt of the Israeli bombing campaign allows access out of the area July 31, 2006 in Tyre, Lebanon.
2005, Afghanistan
An Afghan refugee holds her child as she sits in the sunshine inside their home in Kabul, 02 October 2005.
2005, Sri Lanka
A mother washes her child in the Mahmoud Ladies School which is being used as a refugee shelter for homeless tsunami families. A mother washes her child in the Mahmoud Ladies School which is being used as a refugee shelter for homeless tsunami families in Kalmunai on Sri Lanka's east coast January 10, 2005. The death toll from the Asian tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia on December 26, stood at 156,193 people, government and health officials said.
2005, Sudan
Internally displaced Sudanese women collect rainwater to be used for drinking and cooking in southern Sudan. Internally displaced Sudanese women from Mahli village in southern Darfur region collect rainwater to be used for drinking and cooking as they now live in an improvised refugee camp near Jaach village, northern Awil county in southern Sudan April 26, 2005.
2004, Gaza Strip
A Palestinian woman breaks down in tears trying to salvage usable belongings from her demolished house in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalia on Oct. 16, 2004.
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