On World Refugee Day, Let’s Re-imagine a Modern Immigration System

Reading and watching the news today as we head towards World Refugee Day on June 20, it appears there is no issue more divisive in American politics than immigration. Especially in light of the recent end of Title 42 – the pandemic-era policy used to turn away migrants arriving at our southern border – immigration is dominating the public discourse, and has for most of the past decade. Indeed, I can say with confidence, after 8 years in the Obama istration and 20 years before that at the National Council of La Raza (now UNIDOS US), that the issue has never been anything but a hot-button. The work to create a more humane, just, and fair immigration system is incredibly difficult, and while I continue to believe that there are policy solutions at hand, far too many Americans see the issue as hopeless. But even amid all of the turmoil, in the last 18 months regular Americans have emerged at the forefront of an innovative approach that has broken through the typical partisan divide in the immigration debate.

The solution I’m talking about is humanitarian sponsorship, an immigration pathway that has deep roots in American history, and has been resuscitated for the modern era following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With this approach, everyday people can serve as a sponsor for someone fleeing violence or persecution in their home country. The response to “Uniting for Ukraine,” the Biden istration’s program that opened the door for sponsorship of Ukrainian newcomers, has been nothing short of miraculous. In the year since the program launched, more than 250,000 Americans have signed up to sponsor displaced Ukrainians, welcoming them into their homes and communities and guiding them as they work to rebuild their lives in safety.

What I find especially heartening about the program is that sponsors are found in every corner of the country. Indeed, many of the most successful sponsorship stories I’ve heard have been in the deepest red states where the immigration rhetoric tends to run the hottest. Dan Parks of Wilmington, North Carolina, a former retiree and avid member of the town’s Rotary International Club, watched the violence in Ukraine with horror on his television each night and decided he needed to act. Using Welcome Connect, an online platform created by Welcome.US, a nonprofit organization where I serve as co-chair, Parks connected with two Ukrainian women and their two children, who he sponsored to come to Wilmington. Together with his Rotary club, Wilmington East, Parks raised money for the women — Svetlana Baranava and Nataliya Melmik — and their children and the community has come together to help them adjust to life in a new city.

This story is just one of thousands that pushes back against the narrative that the immigration landscape is too polarized. Indeed, sponsorship has proven such a popular and effective model that, earlier this year, the Biden istration extended these designated pathways to serve additional populations from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, all countries that are currently experiencing serious humanitarian crises. And recent data indicates that in just the last few months, more than 1.5 million Americans have raised their hands to sponsor people seeking refuge from these four countries. What’s more, the State Department also recently announced the Welcome Corps, a new program akin to the Peace Corps, which allows groups of five or more Americans to sponsor refugee newcomers from countries around the world.

Recent polling also attests to the success of the sponsorship model, with a majority of Americans reporting they sponsorship programs, including more than three quarters of Democrats and more than half of Republicans. Americans are not only overwhelmingly in favor of sponsorship, many are ready to serve as sponsors themselves, with a reported 26% of Americans — representing more than 50 million adults — saying they are interested in helping to sponsor a refugee in the next few years.

So, while the media fixates on red-state Governors cynically sending migrants to blue states in buses, their own constituents are opening their arms to welcome newcomers. This is what Americans do - and have done throughout our history - when we are at our best. The capacity to welcome newcomers is rooted in our collective culture and psyche, and even with the rising xenophobia of the past decades, this positive spirit has been showcased nowhere more clearly than through the thousands of Americans who have stepped up to sponsor newcomers.

This gives me hope that Americans will begin to see what I see, which is that our immigration challenges are not as intractable as we think. The Americans who are sponsoring newcomers are the first to say that the life of the Welcomer is transformed every bit as much as the lives of those who are being welcomed. These moments may not be driving political agendas or media coverage, but they should.

Cecilia Muñoz is a co-founder of Welcome.US and former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama. This month, and in honor of World Refugee Day, Welcome.US is encouraging Americans to step up and sponsor newcomers and remain United in Welcome. In order to #BeAWelcomer please visit Welcome.US and learn more about the ways you can help bring refugee newcomers to safety, or the Americans that are welcoming them.