“No take-backs!” Every child knows injustice when she experiences it. You can’t make a move and then change it on a whim.
It’s not right. It’s not fair. It ruins the game.
The plight of refugee families is not a game, yet the current policies and practices of the U.S. government are treating it like one.
I pastor a mid-sized church in a mid-sized town in a mid-sized state. We have worked with World Relief for years, helping families who were invited by our government’s U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Our congregation fell in love with the families we hosted by sharing meals, stumbling through conversations with Google Translate, and navigating schools, jobs, social services, and, of course, learning to drive. It has been our delight, not just our Christian duty.
Our new neighbors continue to form us by their grace, gratitude and grit. We marvel at all they have endured, including losing their promised WIC and SNAP benefits, and all they have shown us about hope and hard work.
PARRIS
On January 9, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally announced the launch of Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening). Starting first in Minnesota, this operation will review and re-interview all refugees who were previously vetted and welcomed by the U.S.
PARRIS is an attempt at a massive “take-back.” And it is wrong. It is unnecessary in its conception and cruel in its implementation.
The U.S. has the most thorough vetting process in the world. Before they were invited into the country, our refugee friends had been reviewed, interviewed, re-interviewed and background checked. They had to show a credible fear of persecution to be resettled here.
Then they were welcomed and guaranteed immediate and indefinite legal status with an invitation to apply for permanent residency. PARRIS now targets the most reviewed and vetted people on earth. It is a waste of government time and resources, yet PARRIS’s unnecessary waste is outmatched by the cruelty of its implementation.
Imagine arriving in the U.S. this time last year. You spent seven years waiting in a neighboring country’s refugee camp after several of your family members were murdered for their faith.
You waited with grit and grace, and you did everything right. Your feet hit the Carolina soil, and you felt relief. You were welcomed by the most powerful nation in the world to start anew, under a promise of social support and a path toward permanent residency. You are learning a new language and culture, sending your children to school, returning to work, and navigating the green card process. And then the government threatens a “take-back” move.
All that you have worked for is now in jeopardy—again. Your future is suddenly unknown—again.
You have a foreboding sense of what might come to pass. You only have to watch how DHS started its “initial focus” on PARRIS in Minneapolis, targeting 5,600 refugees who have not yet received their green card; it takes over a year to receive one in the best-case scenario, even if you already know the language and process. Many details remain unclear, but dozens of recently arrived refugee families (including children) were arrested by ICE and then detained.
Speak Out
Every law-abiding, hard-working, fully vetted, officially welcomed refugee family now lives with the possibility of being taken from their livelihoods and taken back to a country from which they barely escaped with their lives. This is a tragedy of justice. Even the potential of its implementation is a trauma-inducing cruelty.
The church is called to pursue justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. We must make our voices heard. I encourage my fellow followers of Jesus to add your voices by joining this sign-on letter organized by World Relief to petition President Trump and members of Congress on behalf of refugees affected by Operation PARRIS.
No take-backs. The U.S. cannot take back its welcome. The U.S. cannot renege on its word. It cannot default on its many promises to our newest neighbors, whom it welcomed and the church is helping to resettle.
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Pastor/Teaching Elder at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.