American leadership and the global refugee crisis

Merissa Khurma wrote for the Huffington Post about American leadership and the global refugee crisis:

The number of monthly arrivals of refugees into the United States witnessed a sharp decline “from 9,945 in October 2016 to 3,316 in April 2017,” according to recent analysis of official State Department data by the Pew Research Center. This development is perhaps the first line of quantitative evidence of the Trump administration rolling out its new refugee policy; built on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to suspend the refugee program, particularly from war-torn Syria and other Muslim majority countries in the Middle East.

For international and local refugee organizations and advocates, this is not only distressful news, it is a set back for U.S. global leadership and its commitments to the 1951 refugee convention. It is also a retreat in America’s standing as a nation of immigrants and refugees; welcoming the “poor,” the “tired” and the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” in the words of poet Emma Lazarus.