World Relief urges Trump admin. to stop policy of re-interviewing Biden-era refugees

The head of World Relief, a refugee resettlement organization, is calling on the Trump administration to reverse its policy of reviewing the cases of refugees admitted into the United States during the Biden administration, a policy a federal judge temporarily blocked this week. 

In an interview with The Christian Post, World Relief CEO Myal Greene defended the vetting process and highlighted the biblical mandate to care for strangers, lamenting Trump's actions of reviewing and potentially re-interviewing some refugees as a “systematic effort” to undermine the refugee resettlement program.

Greene has called on the Trump administration to withdraw its policy, which was implemented by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and detailed in an internal memo. The policy requires all refugees admitted into the U.S. during the Biden administration to undergo a review and a potential re-interview “to determine that they met the refugee definition” under federal law. 

The memo warned that during the Biden administration, the federal government “potentially prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting.”

Greene told CP he views the new policy as part of “a broader attempt to undermine the resettlement program and the work of the resettlement program.”

“I truly believe that this is part of a larger systematic effort of the government to revoke legal status from immigrants who have entered the country legally, are here under humanitarian … protections and had legal status when President Trump took office,” he maintained. “And I think that those are immigration policies which are less about safety and security and more about where immigrants have come from.”

Greene also cited the efforts to revoke Temporary Protected Status from immigrants who were shielded from deportation as their home country dealt with natural disasters or other conflicts as another example of the “systematic efforts to revoke legal status from immigrants.”

The Trump administration has countered that claim, asserting that TPS has been abused and that many beneficiaries remained in the U.S. indefinitely even after conditions improved in their home countries.  

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, a Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction halting the review of refugees awaiting green cards. He asserted that federal agents may have violated the law by arresting refugees already admitted to the country for additional vetting. 

"These refugees have undergone rigorous background checks and vetting, been
approved by multiple federal agencies for entry, been given permission to work, received
support from the government, and been resettled in the United States," Tunheim wrote. "None have been deemed a danger to the community or a flight risk. None have been charged with any ground for removal."

Maintaining that any additional review of refugees is unnecessary, Greene defended the existing vetting process as sufficient: “Initially, the refugees are screened by the United Nations related to the merits of their case. They’re again screened by the U.S. government to determine if they qualify as a refugee. And then they’re also screened on a security basis by the U.S. government to ensure that they’re not a threat to the United States when they come.”

Greene rebuffed concerns raised about refugee screenings that emerged following the shooting of two National Guard members just before Thanksgiving last year at the hands of an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 following the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. National Guardswoman Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom died from her injuries in that ambush in Washington, D.C., and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically injured and is continuing his recovery. 

Greene said the Trump administration is “trying to take an isolated incident and use it to condemn a whole group of people and then subsequently are not actually proposing security screening.”

"They’re proposing screening based on refugee status," he added. "In fact, if there are concerns about the background or security checks, there’s already existing methods to do that and opportunities to make those more clear.” 

Greene also raised concerns about obstacles that might arise if refugees are required to undergo re-interviews, noting that they “may not have the same records and materials preserved that they had when they first proved, demonstrated and established that they had proved their refugee status” because it “was assumed that that was complete and they may not have saved some of those materials, for whatever reason.”

“We’re inserting an unnecessary screening process into something that has the risk of reactivating trauma and causing uncertainty for individuals here. And so, you have people who went through a traumatic event, which is the reason why they’re refugees to begin with, and that was fully vetted and determined. They’ve come to the United States, begun to reestablish their lives here with hopes of a long-term security,” he stressed. 

Greene characterized the additional screening of refugees as “saying to people who were not welcome in their home country, likely were not welcome in a neighboring country,” that they “might not be welcome here.” He lamented that it will cause “people to relive their trauma and create uncertainty for them and their families.”

Greene estimated that “tens of thousands of individuals … that have been resettled and served by World Relief” could be impacted by the new policy. 

In a letter to Trump, White House Border Czar Tom Homan and several congressional leaders on Tuesday, Greene joined more than 10,000 other Christians from across all 50 states calling for the cessation of the new initiative. 

“As followers of Jesus, our faith compels us to care for our refugee neighbors and to value their safety and flourishing as we value our own,” the letter stated. “We are deeply concerned that this drastic and unprecedented action will have unnecessary consequences for neighbors we have come to know and love.”

Describing refugees as “among the most thoroughly vetted individuals admitted lawfully to the United States” who are “screened both to confirm the persecution they’ve endured and to ensure they pose no security risk,” the letter defined caring for refugees as consistent with the commands of the Bible. It specifically highlighted Jesus’ call to care for “the least of these” as laid out in Matthew 25:31-46 and the command to do “no wrong to a neighbor” in Romans 13:10. 

“We believe our nation has a moral obligation to offer refuge and to ensure those who arrive are embraced and welcomed,” the letter added. “Refugee resettlement should not be a partisan issue. It is grounded in a bipartisan law carefully implemented by administrations of both parties for decades. While it is reasonable to reexamine an individual case if credible concerns arise, forcing all refugees resettled during this period to undergo new scrutiny is unnecessary and cruel.”

Warning that “this dramatic, blunt policy change impacts people whom many of us know as friends and neighbors,” the letter expressed concern that it “reignites unnecessary fear that they could once again lose the safety they’ve found in the United States, particularly as many other lawfully-present immigrants have recently had their legal protections in the United States withdrawn.”

The letter also identified the policy change as being at odds with “President Trump’s stated commitment to stand with and protect persecuted Christians and others fleeing religious persecution.”

In addition to decrying the new policy, the letter urged the Trump administration to “reconsider the recently-set, historically-low ceiling for Fiscal Year 2026 refugee admissions of just 7,500, with a narrow focus on just one population group that would exclude those persecuted on account of their faith and fleeing some of the world’s greatest crises.”

Greene shared additional concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration policies in a statement announcing the publication of the letter Tuesday.

“As a nation, we are at an inflection point in the aftermath of tragedy in the streets of Minneapolis,” he said. 

“How we treat ‘the least of these’ is a symptom of the health of the character of our nation. The behavior demonstrated by enforcement agents towards immigrants and U.S. citizens alike over the past weeks and days demonstrates deep sickness,” Greene proclaimed. “Border Czar Homan and the administration have the opportunity to restore order and rehabilitate the trust that every resident should be able to place in law enforcement, but the work to repair is steep.” 

Greene’s comments refer to the shooting deaths of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this month that have exacerbated tensions over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the state. Minnesota has been the focus of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to re-examine refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration. 

In a statement published earlier this month, DHS announced the launch of Operation PARRIS in Minnesota, which it characterizes as “a sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims.”

According to DHS, “The initial focus is on Minnesota’s 5,600 refugees who have not yet been given lawful permanent resident status (Green Cards). USCIS’ newly established vetting center is leading Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening).”

In his statement published Tuesday, Greene called on the Trump administration to immediately halt Operation PARRIS and asked “Congressional leaders to include oversight into treatment of refugees in DHS appropriations funding.”