How the New Biden-Harris ‘Welcome Corps’ for Refugees Works
You don’t have to already be officially a refugee to be sponsored for resettlement, and your sponsor doesn’t even have to be a citizen
By Nayla Rush on October 10, 2024
Summary
The Welcome Corps is a private sponsorship program designed by the Biden-Harris administration to create opportunities for private individuals in the United States to select their own “refugees” and future American citizens. Sponsored individuals do not need to actually be refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Refugee Status Determination, let alone in that subset of refugees determined by the UN to be in “need of resettlement”. And the sponsors can themselves be earlier refugees or other newcomers.
In fact, this administration has opened the door to non-refugees to be picked for resettlement by private sponsors. Anyone can be sponsored for resettlement as a “refugee” under the Welcome Corps, not just those holding UN refugee status but also asylum seekers, and applicants for “parole” or Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) status who meet certain criteria. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component agency, is left to determine eligibility for refugee status after review of the cases (prepared by an NGO or international organization funded by the U.S. government) and a one-time interview with the applicant. Moreover, the Welcome Corps program offers exemptions to clear applicants from any form of registration documentation.
True, USCIS refugee officers are the ones who, in the end, decide whether applicants are eligible for refugee status and resettlement, but this can be a formality. A Syrian in Lebanon, for instance, who is sponsored by a Syrian green card holder in the United States (possibly himself a recent refugee) is not likely to be denied refugee status by the USCIS officer if the Syrian claims persecution and fear of return to Syria.
In short: You do not need to be a refugee to be sponsored into the United States under the Welcome Corps program, but you can claim persecution and become one to be admitted.
https://cis.org/Report/How-New-BidenHarris-Welcome-Corps-Refugees-Works
