Washington, D.C. — Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA) is deeply concerned by reports that the Trump administration plans to set the U.S. refugee admissions ceiling at 17,500 for fiscal year 2027, with admissions primarily allocated to Afrikaners from South Africa.
The reported plan would further narrow the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program at a time when people fleeing war, persecution, and violence around the world remain in need of pathways to permanence and safety.
“As people of faith, we believe every human life carries equal, God-given dignity,” said Kristyn Peck, LSSNCA CEO. “We cannot lose sight of the fundamental purpose of refugee resettlement: providing safety to people fleeing persecution. Humanitarian protection should be grounded in vulnerability and the need for safety — not nationality. The families who have endured years of displacement and extensive vetting should not be forgotten.”
When the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was suspended in January 2025, approximately 120,000 refugees had been conditionally approved for refugee status, including thousands who had already sold all their belongings and booked travel to the United States. Litigation temporarily allowed a limited number of refugees to enter, but the vast majority did not receive that protection to date.
For thousands of refugees, reaching the United States opens the door to something displacement has often put out of reach: stability, freedom and the chance to build a future.
Seble, Samrawit, and Melete fled Eritrea in search of safety and opportunity and collectively spent 17 years waiting in an Ethiopian refugee camp before resettling in the United States.
Melete waited nine years for the opportunity to leave the camp.
“When I heard that I had been accepted to the U.S. resettlement program, I was so happy,” she told LSSNCA. “I was prepared to work and build a life for myself in America.”
For more than a century, LSSNCA’s faith has called us to welcome the stranger and uphold the God-given dignity of every person. That calling remains at the heart of who we are and the work we do today.
We urge the administration to preserve a robust U.S. Refugee Admissions Program as a humanitarian pathway for people fleeing persecution around the world, address the cases of refugees who have already undergone extensive processing for U.S. resettlement, and conduct the congressional consultation required under the Refugee Act before establishing refugee admission numbers and priorities.
