2017 Victories: ACLJ Call For In-Region Safe Zones Echoed by the President

This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the numerous victories by the ACLJ in 2017.

To aid in the fight against ISIS, and to help protect Christians from genocide, the ACLJ has consistently advocated for the creation of in-region safe zones – the best, most humanitarian way to care for tens of thousands of displaced religious minorities in the Middle East. This year the President echoed the ACLJ’s policy proposal paving the way for major progress in this area.

There are tens of millions of displaced victims of the ongoing civil wars and jihadist genocide raging in Iraq and Syria. There is no way to import and resettle into the United States the millions upon millions of poor and persecuted Christians and other religious minorities fleeing ISIS genocide. It is a humanitarian crisis unlike any time in our lifetimes. Our refugee program simply could not come close to helping the number of people who need assistance.

The establishment of in-region safe zones, however, will protect the persecuted, while still protecting the national security interests of the U.S. In addition, in-region safe zones are ten times more cost effective than conventional refugee resettlement. Further, this will allow displaced Christians to quickly be able to return to their homes as the jihadist violence recedes. It’s what these displaced Christians themselves have been pleading for. We have aggressively advocated that we can care for far more genocide victims, far better, far quicker, and with far less disruption through these in-region safe zones than through the mass importation of refugees.

This year, the President has taken multiple concrete steps toward implementing these policy proposals. First, he issued an Executive Memorandum, in which he called for a study to examine the costs of using in-region safe zones versus the cost of importing refugees to the United States – an important and practical first step in making the case for in-region safe zones. The study found that in-region safe zones are ten times more cost effective than conventional refugee resettlement. Second, during his first speech at the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly, the President called for the creation of in-region safe zones – something we’ve long advocated.

This is a massive victory for persecuted Christians. The ACLJ has been urging these critical policy proposals for the last year and a half. We have long argued that the most compassionate way to care for the millions of displaced victims of ISIS genocide is through establishment of in-region safe zones. Now that groundwork is being laid.

We’ve made strong, affirmative steps to implementing these proposals, but much remains to be done. With your support, we can continue to stand against ISIS‘s barbaric persecution and demand that the U.S. lead the international community to stop the genocide and protect Christians.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to make these victories possible and continue these fights, please consider making a Tax-Deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge. Your gift will be DOUBLED dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You can read more in the ACLJ’s 2017 Victories series here.

Chip in today and double your impact.