FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 1, 2023 Contact: Tim Young | tyoung@lirs.org Washington, D.C. – The Biden administration will reportedly allow tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated to the U.S. to apply to stay and work in the country legally for at least another two years, as efforts in Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act have yet to provide them long-term stability, according to CBS News. The news comes just months before the earliest evacuees were set to lose parole protections, a major source of stress and anxiety. Amid concerns, advocates have stepped-up efforts to press t ..read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 16, 2022 Contact: Tim Young | tyoung@lirs.org                 Melissa Stek | media@interfaithimmigration.org Washington, D.C. – Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and its partners in the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) have launched a new public comment campaign to mobilize opposition to the Biden administration’s proposed asylum ban. The proposed rule, which closely mirrors a Trump administration ban, would severely limit asylum eligibility for those who did not first seek and were subsequently denied prot ..read more

The Forgione family first met Oleh in 2016 as part of an international exchange program. The teenager from Ukraine was shy and kind, relying on a combination of Google translate and charades to communicate. Over the course of four years, he visited Heidi, Mike, and their son in Texas over Christmas and during summer vacations, quickly becoming a fixture at their home—and a big fan of their three cats, Daisy, Duke, and Fuzzball, and their dog Luke.   The pandemic brought an end to the visits, but the family kept in touch with Oleh over Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Though he’d s ..read more

Carlos* was watching the news one evening when an image of a Syrian refugee boy who had drowned at sea filled the screen. As an immigrant himself, he immediately knew he wanted to do something to help the millions of people fleeing war and violence.   Carlos migrated from Cuba to the United States with his family when he was not much older than the boy in the photo and has always been fiercely proud of his immigrant identity. His desire to help others was genetic; after he left home, his mother began fostering immigrant children who had traveled to the U.S. without a guardian ..read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2022 Contact: Tim Young | tyoung@lirs.org Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti for an additional 18 months. He also redesignated Haiti for TPS, allowing Haitian nationals already residing in the United States as of November 6, 2022, to apply for protections. The decision is expected to allow an additional 110,000 eligible Haitians to live and work in the US without fear of deportation. The Department of Homeland Security cited extraordinary and temporary cond ..read more