Earlier this month, Only In America released our powerful two-part series "A Country of Welcome," which you really should check out.
A little bit from behind the scenes on this series — we put this together as President Biden announced he was raising the refugee ceiling to 62,500 for this fiscal year, after first keeping the refugee ceiling at a historic low. It added meaning to the episodes — we were able to see firsthand the power of our voices (which made us tear
up while editing Part II together even more).
In the first part of the series, we hear from Edafe Okporo about his experiences with the US asylum system and how he is trying to help other asylees, and from Jenny
Yang, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief, about the work advocates across the country did around raising the refugee ceiling.
In Part II, we hear from the advocates who were fighting for raising the refugee ceiling through a campaign spearheaded by We Welcome Refugees. Ali spoke to We Welcome Refugees' director, Tess Clarke, about this unique and devoted community, the response to the voicemail campaign, and her own personal journey to refugee advocacy. It’s a tearjerker, so be sure to have some tissues handy – it'll leave you feeling inspired and driven to keep advocating for refugees.
We’re also back on our virtual road-trip through Utah! This week we recapped our journey so far, and coming up we’ll be speaking to Jenny Wilson, the Mayor of Salt Lake County, and Chief Mike Brown from the Salt Lake City Police Department about how they’re using their role as community leaders to create an environment that welcomes immigrants.
Like what you hear? Have suggestions for episodes, or a question for our
production team? Let us know! Email us at digita[email protected].
Katie Lutz
Digital Production Manager
National Immigration Forum
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