Washington, D.C. (March 21, 2023) – A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies provides in-depth analysis of the Welcome Corps, the Biden administration’s new “private” sponsorship initiative within the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

The Welcome Corps will not replace the traditional resettlement process but is in addition to it. Under this program, refugees will be selected for resettlement by private individuals, who will then assist them during their first few months here. Until now, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) referred refugees for resettlement, while nine resettlement agencies funded by the Department of State assisted refugees upon arrival.

Nayla Rush, author of the report and a senior researcher at the Center, writes, “The Welcome Corps follows numerous ‘private’ sponsorship programs designed by the Biden administration to welcome nationals from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela into the United States. All of these programs presented as ‘private’ largely depend on federal funds (i.e., taxpayer dollars). All follow expedited procedures and allow individuals already here to pick those who get to join.”

Some of the key concerns regarding the Welcome Corps highlighted in the Center’s report:

• The Welcome Corps is presented as a private sponsorship arrangement, but in reality it creates a new taxpayer-funded resettlement machinery, starting with a federally funded consortium overseeing the process, which passes federal funds to “Private Sponsor Organizations”, which in turn pass federal funds to “Private Sponsor Groups”.
• The Welcome Corps hands over the control of most of the resettlement process to refugee advocates in the U.S. and permits them to select their own refugees, allowing advocates to decide who is allowed into the country with the opportunity to become an American citizen.
• It is not just “everyday Americans” who will be able to act as sponsors under the Welcome Corps; green card holders (likely also those with conditional two-year green cards) including newly resettled refugees will be able to do so as well.
• It can take “regular” refugees years to be resettled in the U.S., while those who are privately sponsored are expected to make it in just one to two months after their application is approved.
• The initiative’s fast and privileged access to U.S. protection and citizenship could be an invitation for preferential treatment and fraud, with family ties being prioritized over those genuinely in need of resettlement.
• To keep an eye on this program as it unfolds, Rush suggests questions that members of Congress, the media, and the public should be asking, including:
• Under the Welcome Corps, private sponsors in the United States will be able to refer individuals for resettlement; on what basis will that selection take place?
• According to the UN refugee agency, of the 21.3 million refugees under its mandate in 2023, only two million are “in need of resettlement”. Will those picked for resettlement by private sponsors be drawn from this pool, or will they instead be chosen based on ties of family or friendship?
• How fair is “private sponsorship” to refugees who are in desperate need of what UNHCR calls the “critical lifeline” of resettlement?
• Can individuals who do not hold refugee status at all be referred for resettlement by private sponsors?
• Does private selection of candidates for resettlement render the process more vulnerable to fraud?
• How are privately sponsored refugees able to travel to the United States so much more quickly than others? Is the process (including security checks) expedited for them? Are they being interviewed faster? Are their cases being prioritized over others?
• Will the new program be a means for non-profit organizations and philanthropists to push for ever-increasing numbers of refugees to be resettled in the United States?
• Rush concludes, “The Welcome Corps is not merely about ‘everyday Americans’ coming together to raise some $2,000 and assist refugees here, though I’m sure many will do just that driven by generous hearts. It is about the force behind it, the one pulling the marionette’s strings.”