10 Christian reactions to Trump's State of the Union address

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Wednesday, February 06, 2019

World Relief's Jenny Yang | (SCREENSHOT: YOUTUBE/QIDEAS.ORG

5. World Relief

As the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief serves as one of nine agencies authorized to resettle refugees in the United States with the help of local churches throughout the country.

The organization and its leaders have voiced concern about the Trump administration’s drastic reduction in refugees being resettled to the United States and other immigration policies. The refugee resettlement reduction has resulted in the organization receiving less federal funding and having to shut down offices and layoff staff.

In a statement, World Relief President Scott Arbeiter commended the president for affirming the contributions of legal immigrants to the American society. Arbeiter agreed that it is right for the president to seek safety for the nation.

However, Arbeiter called on the president to view the asylum seekers at the U.S. Southern Border in context with the global refugee crisis.

“[There are] 68 million people [who] are forcibly displaced around the world, of which 25 million are refugees,” Arbeiter wrote. “The world’s vulnerable are best served not by punishing them for seeking a new life but by offering clear, defined pathways to seek asylum and become integrated into the nation.”

World Relief maintains in a press release that it is right for Trump to call on Congress “to embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good” but asserts that the president has the opportunity to “offer once-and-for-all fixes” for those with Temporary Protected Status and for immigrants who arrived migrated to the country as children.

“President Trump and Congress have the unique opportunity to solve issues perplexing lawmakers for quite some time,” World Relief CEO Tim Breene said in a statement. “The U.S. refugee resettlement program has been an incredibly effective humanitarian operation for four decades, and we believe that by expanding the existing program to its potential capacity and applying similar structures and priorities to the challenges facing us at our southern border, we can reach a solution that integrates compassion and security.”

World Relief staffers Jenny Yang and Matthew Soerens conducted a live Facebook video Tuesday night responding to the State of the Union.