This panel will begin with a retrospective on MRS’ history of resettling refugees followed by analysis of contemporary and future issues facing refugees and the U.S. resettlement program. As refugee flows have shifted and new crises emerge, MRS and its national resettlement network have responded to the changing needs of the refugee arriving to the United States. This panel will explore how MRS resettlement affiliates have addressed issues locally and mobilized Catholic parish support to assist newly arriving refugees. Furthermore, the panel will touch upon current and anticipated issues facing our country as it prepares to aid the highest number of refugees in decades, due in part to the Syrian crisis.
While legislative and executive efforts towards comprehensive immigration reform have been stymied over the last few years, immigration detention has become the fasting growing incarceration system in the United States with nearly a half million people detained and incarcerated annually. A new report by USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services and the Center for Migration Studies argues that the goals of immigration detention can be accomplished more humanely and at far less cost through a national infrastructure of community-based, supervised release programs. This panel will explore the current state of efforts towards comprehensive immigration reform and immigration enforcement and detention in the United States. It will highlight the Church’s position on the inherent issues, and consider varying government and policy perspectives on the issues. Furthermore, the panel will address ways the Church and its agencies and partners might collaborate in advocacy and service efforts relative to providing alternatives to detention.
This panel will explore the issues inherent in the migration of unaccompanied children, including the sociological factors that contributed to the phenomenon, particularly the influx of children from Central America to the United States. It will highlight the impact on children and families and the ways that the Church and its partners responded and will offer varying perspectives on the government response. Additionally, the panel will consider the possibilities for future flows, how to respond collaboratively, and what steps need to be taken now to enhance capacity to respond to future crises.
