Amid Russia’s offensive into Ukraine, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her platform to make the kind of push for refugees that is as necessary as it is troubling, in that she even needed to speak the words. “The way the world treated Syrian refugees versus the way that the world is greeting Ukrainian refugees is a very stark contrast,” Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday. More than 40 lawmakers signed a letter urging President Joe Biden's administration to use “all available pathways” to protect Ukrainian citizens in the United States on temporary visas and to grant temporary protected status (TPS) to Ukrainian refugees.
"Forcing Ukrainian nationals to return to Ukraine in the midst of a war would be inconsistent with America's values and our national security interests," legislators said in the letter. They included Sens. Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren, and Raphael Warnock, Democrats who have long advocated for people of color.
But as Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, the world hasn’t been as quick to unite for the protection of Syrian refugees also fleeing deadly conflict and a humanitarian crisis.
"I think the world is watching and many immigrants and refugees are watching, and how the world treats Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees should be how we are treating all refugees in the United States," she said.
Human Rights Watch reported about conditions in Syria, noting that "unprecedented depreciation of the national currency, the imposition of further international sanctions, and crises in neighboring countries" drove the country’s economy "into freefall for much of 2020."
"For ordinary Syrians, this translated into an inability to procure food, essential drugs, and other basic necessities. As a result, more than 9.3 million Syrians have become food insecure and over 80 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line," the advocacy organization wrote. "Meanwhile, human rights abuses in government-held territory continued unabated. Authorities brutally suppressed every sign of re-emerging dissent, including through arbitrary arrests and torture."
Former President Donald Trump’s administration allowed the fewest number of refugees into the United States since 1980, The Washington Post reported. The number of Syrian refugees allowed into the United States dropped from 12,587 in the fiscal year of 2016 to a mere 62 in 2018, the Post reported. And even before Trump’s presidency in 2015, former Vice President Mike Pence, then serving as governor of Indiana, fought against two Syrian families seeking escape from deadly Paris attacks in Indiana. They ultimately found refuge in Connecticut.
Ocasio-Cortez also referenced Haitian refugees, more than 900 of whom were deported under Biden's administration in February after trying desperately to escape gang violence, devastation resulting from the deadly earthquake in 2010, and subsequent natural disasters. While Biden has increased a refugee cap Trump set from 15,000 to 62,500, he has failed to reverse Trump-era policy that has led to refugees being turned away at the border.
“We have reports from folks who have been deported that they are in hiding,” Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told BuzzFeed. “They are unable to find safety. It is a humanitarian disaster.
”Every passing day that action isn't taken, more vulnerable refugees are not only deported but forced to wait until their fate is decided. President Joe Biden and his administration must uphold their promises of inclusivity and work to end these policies that Trump has enacted and enforced.”
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