Navigating the Storm: Adapting the IRC Mission to a Shrinking Resettlement Landscap

To the IRC Team and Governing Board:

​This week, while looking at the vacant desks in our resettlement offices, we feel the full effect of the silence surrounding them. In recent years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has provided hope for those who needed it; now we stand at a crucial juncture. I recently read a very good article from HIAS titled 2025: Year in Review. The author describes how U.S. humanitarian policy has changed in such large ways that it has completely changed how we operate (HIAS, 2025).

This document is more than a description of policy; it is a representation of the situations we encounter every day. The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and the closing of critical sources of support (such as USAID) not only created bureaucratic obstacles but also left certain families that we had promised to keep safe in limbo. For the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—whose mission is based on Albert Einstein's idea of sanctuary—these "massive rollbacks" seem to be a direct attack on our values as an agency (HIAS, 2025).

The shifts being made in the United States federal government relating to policy were not simply hypotheticals; instead, they ended up having real benefits and costs that were immediate to all those affected around the world. For example, families who were approved for resettlement through the U.S. Asylum System found themselves stranded in their host country (HIAS) with no available means to re-settle within the U.S. government's safety net program. The situation we find ourselves in today is that we have entered what the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has defined as a "New World Disorder" (IRC, 2025).

Global forced displacement in 2020 totaled an unprecedented 122 million individuals, while our support systems to assist those displaced individuals have largely collapsed. As reported by the Refugee Law Initiative (RLI) the 2026 U.S. refugee cap in fiscal year 2026 is a record low of 7,500 individuals compared to the 2025 125,000 cap (RLI, 2025). The exceptional divergence between the rapidly growing needs of the displaced persons globally and the declining support systems provided by governments means that traditional government-funded programs cannot be the primary way in which we continue to meet those displaced persons' needs (IRC, 2025).

Here is what I have to say about the direction of our work as a team: If the “front door” to the U.S. is being closed off, then we have the impetus to create or strengthen the complementary pathways, such as labor market mobility and educational sponsorships, to allow refugees to safely leave. If we continue to wait for the political pendulum to swing back to an open door, we will lose all opportunity. We have a leadership role to play in identifying solutions through the private sector that can provide options for our clients' safety now.

 

​References

​HIAS. (2025, December 19). 2025: Year in Review. https://hias.org/news/2025-year-review/

​International Rescue Committee. (2025, December 16). IRC Emergency Watchlist 2026: “New World Disorder” driving unprecedented humanitarian crises as global support collapses. ReliefWeb. https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/irc-2026-emergency-watchlist-new-world-disorder

​Lopez, O. (2025, November 6). 9 Best Charities for Helping Refugees. Impactful Ninja. https://impactful.ninja/best-charities-for-refugees/

​Refugee Law Initiative. (2025, August 7). The future of U.S. refugee resettlement and lessons from other countries. RLI Blog. https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2025/08/07/the-future-of-u-s-refugee-resettlement-and-lessons-from-other-countries/