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2 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORA letter from Myal Greene, President & CEO of World Relief, and Ryan Brown, President & CEO of Open Doors US STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORPersecuted Christians and the U.S. Refugee Resettlement and Asylum ProcessesUpdated October, 2024The first edition of this report, released in 2020, noted soberly that an estimated 80 million people around the globe had been forcibly displaced from their homes and that at least 260 million Christians world-wide lived under the threat of persecution and discrimination.In this third edition of the report, published fewer than five years later, those numbers have increased dramatically. The number of people globally who have been displaced by persecution, violence, human rights violations and disruptions of public order has surpassed 120 million for the first time in recorded his-tory. And the number of Christians who face high levels of persecution or discrimination because of their faith has risen to 365 mil-lion, accounting for 1 in 7 Christians global-ly. Of those individuals, 313 million live within the 50 countries on the Open Doors 2024 World Watch List of places where Christians are most at risk. Not every persecuted Christian flees his or her home, of course, and not every displaced person is persecuted because of his or her religion, but these numbers certainly are re-lated: When religious persecution becomes suciently acute, often compounded by oth-er pressures, many determine that their only option is to flee, whether within their country or to another country as refugees. As in our past two reports, our goal is to help the U.S. church recognize that issues of international religious freedom and forced displacement are closely related. However, this edition of the report has a new title. The first edition, in 2020, was published at a time when the United States had dra-matically restricted refugee resettlement, including resettlement of those persecuted because of their Christian faith. The number of Christian refugees resettled in 2020 from the 50 countries on that year’s Open Doors World Watch List was down 90 percent from the number who had arrived in 2015. By the next edition of the report, using data through fiscal year 2022, those numbers had begun to rebound, but only marginally. Both reports were titled “Closed Doors,” reflecting the startling reality that the U.S. was oering ref-uge to tens of thousands fewer persecuted Christians than its historic norms. This new report’s picture is more nuanced and merits a more neutral title. When the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2024, 29,493 Christian refugees from the 50 countries on this year’s World Watch List had been admit-ted to the United States as refugees. That’s the highest number of Christians resettled from these 50 countries since 2016, roughly coinciding with a commensurate increase in the number of resettled refugees of all reli-gious backgrounds and countries of origin. While refugee resettlement remains a last-re-sort option, one available to just a small frac-tion of refugees around the world persecut-ed because of their faith, the “golden door” that poet Emma Lazarus once described as a refuge for those “yearning to breathe free” is open to far more today than it was just a

OPENING LETTER | 3In Christ, Myal GreenePresident & CEO World ReliefRyan BrownPresident & CEO Open Doors USfew years ago, and we celebrate this return to our country’s historic leadership in oering refuge to the persecuted. However, for Christians concerned with in-ternational religious freedom and forced dis-placement, there are still serious concerns. Changes to U.S. asylum policy implemented by the Biden-Harris administration in the past year have significantly reduced due process protections for those fleeing religious per-secution who seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexi-co border. And the progress in terms of ref-ugee resettlement could be quickly undone in the coming months, as the U.S. president has broad legal authority to suspend refugee resettlement entirely, which former President Trump has pledged to do “on day one.” Given the hyper-partisan moment in which we release this report, less than one month before U.S. presidential elections, we should be explicitly clear: Both of our organizations are non-partisan organizations. This report should not be construed as an endorse-ment or a denunciation of any political party or candidate. Instead, we intentionally release this re-port now to remind the U.S. church that our country’s refugee and asylum policies im-pact their brothers and sisters around the world persecuted for their faith in Jesus, and to give candidates, as they angle for Chris-tians’ votes, the opportunity and incentive to commit to refugee resettlement and asy-lum policies that prioritize the wellbeing of persecuted Christians.We also should be very clear, as we have in past editions of this report, that our concern is not only for those who share our faith in Jesus Christ. As Christians, we believe that all human beings — regardless of religion or any other qualifier — are made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) with inherent dignity and lives worth protecting. We believe that Je-sus’ all-encompassing command to love our neighbors clearly extends beyond love for one’s fellow believers, as illustrated by the “Good Samaritan,” who was the model of neighborly love for a vulnerable traveler of a dierent religious tradition (Luke 10:25-37). Our nation’s laws rightly oer refuge to those fleeing persecution because of any religious tradition or for other specific reasons, such as race, political opinion and nationality. And recent polling confirms that most U.S. Chris-tians — 71 percent of U.S. evangelical Chris-tians, at least — believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept such refugees, not only fellow Christians. But as this report demonstrates through both statistics and individual stories, follow-ers of Jesus are often among those most at risk of persecution in countries that deny the religious freedom we believe is a God-given right of each human being. We cannot pro-fess to care for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ if we are unwilling to do what we can to address their physical needs for safety (James 2:14-16). One way we can do so is to be faithful stewards of the voices that God has entrusted to us, by advocating for refugee and asylum policies that oer refuge to fellow believers who face persecution.Our hope and prayer is that this report equips and challenges fellow Christians to ensure that their witness in such a time as this, when Christians around the world face persecu-tion and many have been forced to flee their homes, is marked by solidarity with these brothers and sisters in Christ, who desperate-ly need our advocacy and prayers.

4 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORINTRODUCTIONMore than 120 million people across the globe are victims of forced displacement, and 40 percent are children. Some 37.6 million peo-ple meet the formal definition of a refugee, having fled their coun-tries because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Three-quarters are hosted by low- or middle-income countries. War, trauma and other major social and economic disrup-tions drive millions more to migrate in search of better work oppor-tunities and a safer place to call home. A significant share of refugees worldwide are persecuted because of their religion, including many Christians. Globally, more than 365 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimina-tion for their faith. When individuals facing violence and pressure at home determine it is no longer safe to remain, some make the dicult decision to migrate, which is often the result of religious persecution in conjunction with other migratory pressures — hoping and praying to find a safe country that will welcome them. The United States has long set the standard for the global agenda on refugees and asylum seekers. Yet over the past several years, the U.S. has not consistently been the safe haven for displaced persons that it once was. The “golden door” that Emma Lazarus poetically described as the gateway to safety and liberty for those “yearning to breathe free” largely closed shut by 2020. The COVID-19 pan-demic coincided with the low-point of refugee resettlement to the United States: Just 11,411 refugees were resettled in FY 2021, though the number already was declining precipitously well before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past three years, however, the U.S. refugee resettlement pro-gram has rebounded dramatically, such that 100,034 refugees of all backgrounds were resettled in FY 2024, the highest overall reset-tlement levels since 1994. And as refugee resettlement overall has rebounded, so has the number of Christian refugees resettled from countries where Christians face persecution. While the United States has made religious freedom a priority of do-mestic and foreign policy, religious persecution continues to drive the displacement of Christians. The U.S. government’s commitment to religious freedom — rightly proclaimed by the current administra-tion, by both candidates seeking the presidency and by bipartisan leadership in Congress — necessitates an equally enduring respon-sibility toward refugees and asylum seekers. IMAGE BY TOM COE

5GLOBAL PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANSToday, one in seven Christians worldwide live under the threat of persecution or dis-crimination in countries that hinder, outlaw or otherwise oppress the expression of the Christian faith. Christians face some of the most severe persecution in authoritarian countries, such as North Korea, Iran, Myan-mar, China and Eritrea. These and other op-pressive governments restrict Christian free-dom of religion and impose harsh, sometimes debilitating, penalties on Christian conduct and expression. In its 2024 World Watch List, a research-based overview of religious freedom conditions for Christians worldwide, Open Doors identified several current global trends that contribute to Christian persecution. Chief among them is the power of anti-Christian governments to arrest and execute Christians for practicing A Christian asylum seeker at the U.S. southern border walks with his wife and childtheir faith. This past year alone, at least 4,998 Christians were killed for their faith, while many others were arrested and imprisoned. But hostility toward Christians doesn’t always come directly from the government. Social pressures, cultural norms and religious antip-athies also can contribute to persecution. Tragically, these religious antipathies often find expression in violence against Christians. Violence from militant religious factions is in-creasingly common across many areas of the globe, but especially in sub-Saharan Africa and East and South Asia, where governments struggle to control extremist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS-aliated clans. The Tal-iban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, targets religious minorities. In Mid-dle Eastern countries such as Iraq and Syria, longstanding conflict has led to the near-ex-tinction of historic Christian communities that have existed since the days of the ear-ly church. Wherever religious extremists can operate unchecked, many Christians fear for their lives and their livelihoods. As a result, Christians around the world are forced to choose between exposing their fam-ilies to life-threatening risk at home or fleeing persecution. Many initially flee to another lo-cation within their country of origin they hope will provide safety; others seek refugee sta-tus or asylum in foreign countries. Some are initially internally displaced, but when the threat catches up to them, they conclude the only option is to seek refuge across a border. Those who make the dicult decision to flee face an uncertain future, full of its own risks and dangers. But for far too many Christians, choosing the vulnerable life of a refugee is the only way to keep themselves and their fami-lies safe from harm.

6 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORPate was born in Chin State in Myanmar, also known as Burma, in 1991. His family had been Christians for at least three generations, in-heriting a legacy of faith that began with Baptist missionaries who brought the gospel to Myanmar. But the military regime that con-trols Myanmar has long been hostile to Chris-tians and other religious minorities as well as to ethnic minorities. As he grew up, the threats of persecution against Pate increased, and at the age of 16 he made the dicult decision to travel by himself to neighboring Malaysia. In Malay-sia, he felt more freedom to worship Jesus, but he struggled to learn the new languages around him. Making ends meet was almost impossible because he was not allowed to work lawfully. Pate met his wife, also a refu-gee from Myanmar, and they had two daugh-ters together – but they were not allowed to attend school. Pate registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees shortly after ar-rival in Malaysia and was eventually verified as a refugee. But the process of resettlement took many more years, with various inter-views and security checks both from UNHCR and then the U.S. government. Finally, after 15 years as refugees in Malaysia, Pate and his family were approved for resettlement. They arrived in Greenville, South Carolina, in Sep-tember 2022, a month which saw more Bur-mese refugees resettled to the U.S. than any month since 2017. In the years since, those numbers have continued to increase further. Pate and his family were welcomed by World Relief Upstate South Carolina and by volun-teers from a local church. Pate now works as a barista, and he and his wife had a third child since arrival, the first U.S. citizen in their fam-ily. He worries about his family back in Myan-mar, where because of increased persecution by the military regime beginning in 2021, In-ternet and telephone communications are nearly non-existent. But he’s thankful to be safe, to be free to worship freely and to pro-vide for his wife and children. Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith. TESTIMONY:PATEMYANMARIMAGE BY HAN HTET AUNG

7The U.S. Refugee Resettlement ProgramUnder both U.S. and international law, a ref-ugee is an individual who has left their coun-try of origin and who has a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, political opinion, national origin or member-ship in a particular social group. Refugees are unable to find protection from their local governments and must seek safety and sur-vival elsewhere. While most refugees would prefer to return home if it were safe, in many cases the on-going threat of persecution makes that im-possible, negating the avenue of voluntary repatriation. Refugees wait until either local integration becomes a possibility and they are granted permanent protection in the first country to which they fled, or they are oered resettlement in a third country. They wait ei-ther in refugee camps or in urban settings, where they usually lack permission to work and provide for themselves. In some cases, Christian refugees face additional persecu-tion in transitional settings, including relief discrimination and violent attacks targeting Christians and other religious minorities. Since 1980, when the Refugee Act became law and formalized the U.S. refugee resettle-ment program, more than 3.3 million refugees have been resettled to the U.S. During the past decade, more than half of all resettled refu-gees have been Christians, including many persecuted for their faith. Everyone under-goes a thorough security and health screen-ing prior to resettlement. As a report from The Heritage Foundation notes, “refugees undergo more vetting than any other immi-grants to the U.S.” For the relatively small share of the world’s refugees whom the U.S. government selects and approves for re-settlement, the U.S. State Department partners with a variety of faith-based and other nonprofit organizations, including World Relief, to assist refugees in their pro-cess of cultural adjustment.Under the authority of the Refugee Act, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and with broad bipartisan support by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, the U.S. A former refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, photographed in front of his place of work.

8 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORpresident is responsible for setting an annual “ceiling” for refugee admissions. Those ceil-ings have ranged from 231,700 under Pres-ident Carter in FY80 to 15,000 under Presi-dent Trump in FY21. When the Biden-Harris administration began in 2021, it was slow to fulfill its campaign com-mitment to rebuild the U.S. refugee resettle-ment process. President Biden surprised and dismayed many refugee and religious free-dom advocates by initially resetting the ref-ugee ceiling at the historically low level of 15,000 for the remainder of FY21. Gayle Man-chin, then chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, noted that this historically low refugee ceiling “fail[ed] to reflect that unprecedented numbers of in-dividuals worldwide are forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution, including based on their religion or belief.” Her USCIRF co-chair, Tony Perkins, insisted that “to stand by our nation’s commitment to religious freedom, the United States should be a safe haven for persecuted religious communities.” Since that time, however, the administration has made commendable progress in rebuild-ing the refugee resettlement program, setting the refugee ceiling at 125,000 each fiscal year since 2022, including for FY25, which began just a few weeks ago. The actual number of refugees resettled, however, does not always reach the maximum allowed. Limitations in overseas processing as well as domestic resettlement infrastruc-ture have prevented the Biden-Harris admin-istration from hitting this ceiling. However, the overall number of refugees admitted has increased year over year, reaching a total of 100,034 in FY24, the highest level since 1994. That increase has been made possible, in part, by several innovative processes that the U.S. State Department has implemented re-cently. Among the most important for advo-cates of persecuted religious minorities is the Welcome Corps, a private sponsorship pro-cess launched in 2023. Whereas refugee re-settlement has in recent history been limited to geographies where an oce or aliate of one of the ten national resettlement agencies had a physical location and sta, Welcome Corps allows a small group of Americans — including those from local churches — to take the lead in resettling a specific refugee family anywhere in the United States, covering initial costs as well as being responsible for volun-teering their time to ensure a smooth integra-tion into a new community. One dynamic of Welcome Corps that is of relevance for those concerned with persecut-ed Christians and other religious minorities is that Welcome Corps allows the sponsoring group to name a specific refugee individual or family whom they would like to resettle. The refugee must of course still demonstrate that they meet the U.S. legal definition of a refugee and clear appropriate vetting proce-dures, but this process has allowed Ameri-cans with a concern for brothers and sisters in Christ who have had to flee their homelands to facilitate their lawful entry to the U.S. The Welcome Corps private sponsorship process has been modeled on a similar longstanding private sponsorship process in Canada. That opportunity is now available in the Unit-ed States as well. For example, World Relief, through its Churches of Welcome initiative, has already helped to support seven local churches in North Carolina, South Caroli-na and Wisconsin that have formed “Good Neighbor Teams” to sponsor Afghan Chris-tian refugee families for resettlement. As of this time, those families are in Pakistan, await-ing final approval. There are some ongoing challenges to the Welcome Corps process, however, particular-ly in that refugees in some host countries that happen to host large numbers of persecuted Christians, such as Türkiye, are ineligible for sponsorship due to limited U.S. governmen-tal ability to interview and process refugees in these countries. A recent letter from the

THE U.S. REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM | 9International Religious Freedom Roundtable signed by various advocacy organizations noted this concern, while praising the pro-gram overall as “crucial to ensuring that the United States upholds its legacy as a beacon of hope and opportunity for those fleeing re-ligious persecution.” While the overall increase in resettlement is very encouraging, it coincides with a dramat-ic increase in the global need for resettle-ment. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 2.9 million refu-gees will need resettlement in 2025, a num-ber that has doubled just since 2021. In 2023, only 96,311 refugees — about 3.3 percent of the global need — were resettled to any third country. As religious persecution around the world rises, more Christians than ever before are facing religious persecution with scant hope of resettlement if they flee. While refugees of various religious traditions need resettlement, among those most vul-nerable are Christian refugees from the coun-tries where Christians face the most severe persecution in the world. In 2024, the number of Christians resettled from the top 50 coun-tries perpetuating Christian persecution on the 2024 World Watch List was up 27 per-cent from 2023 and up a remarkable 447 per-cent from 2020. Last year, 29,493 Christians were resettled from these 50 countries, up from 5,390 in 2020. This represents the high-est number of Christian refugees resettled from these countries since 2016, when 32,248 Christian refugees from these 50 countries were resettled to the U.S. For Christians from several countries that rank high on the 2024 World Watch List, the progress is mixed. A total of 2,007 Christian refugees from Eritrea (#4 on the 2024 World Watch List) were resettled in 2024, up 387 percent from 2020 and higher than any year since 2012. The number of Christian refugees from Iran (#9), Iraq (#16) and Myanmar/Bur-ma (#17) were all up dramatically from 2020, but still dramatically below the numbers re-settled in 2016 and prior years. Looking forward, however, the future of reset-tlement for persecuted Christians, along with those of other backgrounds, is uncertain, par-ticularly as the United States prepares to elect a new president. While Vice President Kama-la Harris has generally supported refugee re-settlement and not indicated that she would address refugee resettlement in distinct ways from President Biden, former President Don-ald Trump has said in campaign rallies that “on day one of the Trump administration” he will be “suspending refugee admissions,” and he has repeated that commitment on social media. He has not necessarily clarified if that would be the policy throughout his presiden-cy or merely a temporary suspension, but, given the broad authority that the Refugee Act gives to the president to set the refugee ceiling, it would likely be within the presi-dent’s authority to simply set the refugee ceiling to zero (or, in the middle of a fiscal year, to the number already resettled up to that point). The tragic reality is that many areas of the world simply aren’t safe for Christians, and Christians fleeing persecution need a safe ha-ven in the United States. With religious per-secution of Christians at some of the highest levels ever reported, closing the door to ref-ugees threatens the lives of Christians — and American Christians must not remain silent. World Relief sta in Durham, NC

10 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORTESTIMONY:MUSAPAKISTANIn Pakistan, blasphemy is a crime. Charges of blasphemy can be wielded like weapons against Christians, leading to mob violence or death sentences. So when Musa, his wife and two children were questioned aggressively about their Christian faith in an open-air market, they knew they could be in trouble. When Musa tried to leave, the salesman loudly accused him of blasphemy, drawing an increasingly angry crowd. After hiding for several days, Musa and his family boarded an air-plane for the United States, having providentially already obtained tourist visas to attend a Christian conference. They knew that they could never safely return to their country of origin. Once in California, Musa and his family struggled to make ends meet, since they were initially ineligible to work lawfully, and the asylum process was daunting. Eventually, they were connected to World Relief Sacramento and to a team of sta and volunteers who came alongside the family and guided them through the asylum application. Ted Oswald, an immigration attorney on the World Relief Sacramen-to sta, had the privilege of sharing the news with Musa that his case had been approved. “The shouts of praise and jubilation from Musa and his wife were electric, giving me chills,” reflects Ted. World Relief Sacramento has since created a new project, Presideo, specif-ically focused on providing asylum representation for persecuted religious minorities. As for Musa, while the adjustment to life in a new place has been dicult, he and his family are grateful that they are safe and free to practice their faith. Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith. IMAGE BY ZAIN ABID

11Zain AbidTESTIMONY:FERNANDOMEXICOPastor Fernando’s life had been transformed when he met Jesus and was freed from alcohol, so after becom-ing a Pentecostal pastor, he led his church to launch an in-patient rehabilitation and discipleship program for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. The ministry, in Guanajuato, Mexico, was thriving – until Fernando’s Christian convictions brought him into the crosshairs of feuding cartels. Fernando’s ministry would oer the love and hope of Jesus to anyone, regardless of their past, so when mem-bers of one cartel insisted Fernando turn over a four-teen-year-old boy being cared for by the ministry, he refused. The cartel killed the boy – and told Fernando that he would be next. Fernando went to the police, but they proved unable or unwilling to protect him. One ocer discreetly told him that his name was on the cartel’s death list and his best option was to flee. After much prayer, Fernando traveled north to the U.S.-Mexico border, arriving in No-vember 2022. After six weeks at a church-operated shelter on the Mex-ican side of the border, Fernando was given the chance to explain his situation to border ocials, was lawfully “paroled” into the United States and given a court date in Chicago, Illinois, where he could stay temporarily with a family friend. At their church in suburban Chicago, Fernando got connected to World Relief, which helped him find legal representation, access to English classes and other support. It took more than a year, but Fernando recently was granted employment authorization, allowing him to lawfully work and support himself and his family while he awaits further court hearings that will determine his eligibility to stay permanently in the United States. “The adjustment to life in the United States has been very dicult,” Pastor Fernando acknowledged, “but I am grateful to be safe and to be alive. I pray that the United States will continue to oer refuge to those persecuted because they seek to follow Jesus.” Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith.

12 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORResettlement of Persecuted Christian Refugees on the ReboundArrival of Christian Refugees from the 50 Countrieson the Open Doors 2024 World Watch ListNumber of Christian Refugee Arrivals, FY20 to FY24All data is provided by the U.S. State Department’s Refugee Processing Center through the end of FY24, which ended on September 30, 2024. Religious aliation provided by the Refugee Processing Center is self-reported. Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious groups that self-identify as Christians are included in that category, even though some Christians would classify them as a distinct religious tradition. The Refugee Processing Center’s data categorizes Yezidis as a distinct, non-Christian religious tradition from FY12 through FY22, but includes Yezidis as Christians for FY23 and FY24; we have continued to categorize Yezidis as a distinct, non-Christian religious tradition. Note that numbers vary in some cases from those reported in the first and second editions of this report because (a) these figures are reported based on the federal government’s fiscal year, not the calendar years that were used in the first edition, and (b) because the countries on the 2024 Open Doors World Watch List have changed in some cases from the 2020 and 2023 reports used in the first and second editions of this report, respectively.

While this report focuses primarily on the eects of changes to U.S. refugee and asylum policy on per-secuted Christians, various other religious minority groups that have faced religious persecution also have been resettled to the U.S. as refugees. As Christians, we believe that all people have the right to religious freedom, and that reli-gious minorities of any sort — not just those who share our Christian faith — should be protected.Compared to 2020, the number of refugees resettled in 2024 has increased:

14 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORIn 2011, Farida had a dream that changed the trajectory of her life. She dreamed that she entered a church and received a blessing from a priest. She woke up and resolved to read the gospels, then ultimately made the decision to follow Jesus. Farida was overjoyed by her newfound faith, but she also knew that to convert from Islam to Christianity was illegal — potentially pun-ishable by death — under the Algerian Minis-try of Religion’s interpretation of Islamic law. She eventually revealed her conversion to her father. He shocked her by discreetly reveal-ing that he, too, was a Christian. Farida’s husband, however, responded vio-lently to her decision, which led to the first persecution she experienced. When she re-sponded by seeking a divorce, he threat-ened to take their children, since for Farida to tell them about Jesus also would have been illegal. Farida was terrified she would lose her children. She encountered a sympathetic believer at the Polish embassy who was able to help Farida and her children escape to Poland, and then, since she spoke French, she contin-ued on to France. After several months, she was accepted for resettlement to the United States. A Catholic priest from Modesto, Cali-fornia, whom Farida providentially met when he was visiting France, agreed to help. Farida and her children arrived in California in Janu-ary 2024, welcomed by this priest, the sta of World Relief Modesto and a Christian family who hosted her when she first arrived. The adjustment to a new country and a new language has not been easy, but Farida is thankful to be safe and with her children. She has become passionate about helping Amer-ican Christians understand the persecution under which so many of their brothers and sisters in Christ around the world live. Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith. TESTIMONY:FARIDAIMAGE BY MOUNIR ABDIALGERIA

IMAGE BY MOUNIR ABDIThe U.S. Asylum ProcessWhereas refugees who are resettled to the U.S. are identified and screened abroad — and subject to the annual ceiling on refugee resettlement set by the president — the Refugee Act of 1980 also formalized the process by which an individual who reaches the U.S. can request asylum. An asylum seeker is someone who professes to meet the definition of a refugee — having fled his or her country of origin because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, national origin or membership in a particular social group — but whose claim has not yet been verified by an appropriate governmental authority. Because asylum seekers have not been given an ocial status yet, they are often vulnerable to hardship, exploitation and injustice as they wait to be recognized by a host country. Under current U.S. law, there is no limit on the number of individuals who can receive asylum each year. The U.S. has committed itself, both in the Refugee Act and as a party to an international conven-tion, not to return someone who can establish that they qualify for asylum to a situation of potential danger. Because one must physically reach the United States to request asylum — whether on an airplane, a ship or by reaching a land bor-der — it has generally been accessible only to those who are geo-graphically proximate to the U.S. or who are among the relatively few who qualify for a tourist or other non-immigrant visa, which is generally necessary to board an airplane. Increasingly over the past several years, however, individuals from South American countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have made an extremely treacherous journey through Panama’s Darien Gap to reach the U.S.-Mexico border. And a grow-ing number of individuals from the Eastern Hemisphere who have found countries in Central or South America that would grant them visas then made the journey north. In FY20, 89% of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border — which includes both those apprehended by the Border Patrol after having entered unlawfully and those with-out a visa who reported to a lawful port of entry — were individuals from Mexico or Central America. By FY23, the Mexican and Central American share of all encounters had fallen to 53%. An individual in the United States may request asylum either “ar-matively,” submitting a request to the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security if they are already present lawfully in the U.S. on a temporary IMAGE BY JEREMY POLAND

16 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORbasis, or “defensively,” when facing a remov-al hearing before an immigration judge, as is usually the case for those who arrive without a visa at the U.S. border. In FY21, just 16,628 individuals (not including spouses or minor children of principal applicants) were granted asylum either by USCIS or by an immigration judge, the lowest number in decades. This was largely the result of the COVID-19 pan-demic, which led to shutdowns of U.S. em-bassies and USCIS oces and to a near-total halt on processing of asylum applications for those who came through the U.S-Mexico bor-der under public health restrictions known as Title 42. However, the number of asylum approvals also was on a steep decline even before the COVID pandemic because of in-creasingly restrictive policies limiting access to asylum. By FY22, the total number of individuals granted asylum more than doubled to 36,615. While full data is not yet available for FY23 and FY24, particularly for armative asylum approvals from USCIS, the number of approv-als by the immigration courts increased from 25,417 in FY22 to 35,122 in FY23. As of August 2024, the number of FY24 asylum approvals in immigration court was on track to be like 2023. Asylum cases can be dicult to win, even when the asylum seeker has legitimately fled persecution. This is because the burden of proof in an asylum case is on the asylum seek-er, and often they lack documentary evidence of what they claim to have experienced. While an asylum seeker has the right to an attorney at their own expense, they are not generally provided with an attorney by the immigration court. Those without representation — who are generally seeking to navigate a complex law in a foreign language — are at least 2.5 times less likely to be granted asylum by an immigration judge than those represented by counsel. While comprehensive data on the religious demographics of asylum seekers or on the particular legal ground(s) of persecution on which asylum requests were based are not readily available, it is clear that asylum has been an important tool for persecuted Chris-tians able to escape their countries of origin and reach the United States. Just among af-firmative asylum decisions made by USCIS, the share of all asylum approvals based on religious persecution has been at least 13.2% and as high as 19.5% in the most recent years for which data is available. For asylum decisions made by the immigra-tion courts, specific data on the religious de-mographics of applicants is not publicly avail-able. However, in FY23, more than 15,800 individuals were granted asylum by U.S. im-

THE U.S. ASYLUM PROCESS | 17migration judges from the 50 countries on the 2024 World Watch List, accounting for about 59 percent of the cases adjudicated from those countries. More than 40 percent of those asylum approvals came from just two populous countries, India (#11 on the 2024 World Watch List) and China (#19). Another 22 percent came from the four countries on the 2024 World Watch List in Latin America. In recent years, the U.S. asylum system has become increasingly associated with U.S. border policy. In December 2023, the Border Patrol made 249,741 apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border, the highest number on record. In recent years, many if not most of those apprehended have not sought to evade the Border Patrol to sneak into the United States, as was much more common a decade ago, but to turn them-selves in to the Border Patrol in order to begin an asylum process. The language of longstanding U.S. asylum law allows an individual who reaches the United States to seek asylum “whether or not at a designated port of arrival.” Previ-ously, most asylum seekers who arrived via land border would seek asylum at a lawful port of entry, without crossing unlawfully, but beginning in 2016 under the Obama administration and expanded in subse-quent administrations, “metering” policies have limited the number of individuals who are allowed to seek asylum at ports of en-try on a given day, leading to long waits in what are often dangerous communities on the Mexican side of the border. An increasing number of individuals have crossed the bor-der unlawfully between ports of entry to seek out a Border Patrol agent and begin an asy-lum request. Since January 2023, the primary and usual-ly sole way to begin an asylum request at a port of entry is by using an app known as CBP One. Currently, there are 1,450 CBP One ap-pointments available daily at dierent ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, allow-ing an individual who is physically present in Mexico (but not, if they are non-Mexican, in their country of origin) to request an appoint-ment at which they could initially present their request for asylum. Some individuals, of course, do not have ac-cess to a smartphone or to a place to charge their phone battery in order to access the app. For those who do, the number of individuals trying to secure these appointments dramati-cally exceeds the daily number available, such that individuals often wait several months — sometimes as long as eight to nine months as of August 2024 — to successfully secure an appointment, through this lottery-like

18 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORThe Taliban’s return to power in 2021 was like a death sentence for Mustafa and his young family. Their Christian faith and Mustafa’s job with the U.S.-backed Afghan government put their lives in grave danger nearly over-night. At first, they hid and prayed in their home for two days. One night, the Taliban tore through their neighborhood. They had nowhere to run, so Mustafa and his wife fell to their knees and prayed for God’s protec-tion. Miraculously, the Taliban inexplicably bypassed their home. The roads to Kabul airport were already con-trolled by the Taliban, so the family traveled by bus to Pakistan. They then caught a flight to Brazil — one of few countries oering hu-manitarian visas to Afghans at the time. Still feeling unsafe, they began a perilous trek north to the United States, including passing through the infamous Darien Gap in Panama. “I saw the presence of God in every single step of my journey — all the way. I felt the system. Not surprisingly, many have instead crossed the border unlawfully, particularly when informed (sometimes by a profit-moti-vated smuggler) that U.S. law allows asylum requests regardless of one’s mode of entry. This situation has clearly become dysfunc-tional, with so many individuals being ap-prehended by the Border Patrol and insu-cient governmental capacity to either quickly adjudicate claims or to detain those appre-hended that individuals have been routine-ly background checked and then given an immigration court date in the interior of the United States. Some will eventually be grant-ed asylum, but based on recent court data, most likely will not — though it could take many years before they receive a final deci-sion. Overwhelmed immigration judges are also dismissing an unprecedented number of immigration court cases without issuing a fi-nal decision. Individuals released into the U.S. are allowed under the law to be present while they await their final court disposition but are never-presence of God when I was escaping from Afghanistan. God protected me … The same thing in the Panama jungle … We just prayed and God saved us.” Once they reached the U.S.-Mexico border, Mustafa faced a complicated legal process to request asylum. Through a few God-ordained connections, Mustafa discovered World Relief Southern California, whose sta and volun-teers came alongside his family to provide le-gal assistance, temporary housing and a sup-portive community. As of this writing, Mustafa’s asylum case is still pending, but having seen God rescue them over the past three years in miraculous ways, he is confident God will provide again.Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith. TESTIMONY:MUSTAFAAFGHANISTAN

THE U.S. ASYLUM PROCESS | 19theless ineligible to apply for employment authorization until at least five months after submitting an asylum application. Identifying and paying for a legal representative to com-plete an asylum application can take months, so many individuals are ineligible to work lawfully for a year or more. Hundreds of thousands of individuals — some with very strong asylum claims, including those who had fled persecution on account of their religion, but also likely many without strong cases, who may have fled economic hardship or other situations that would not in themselves qualify an individual for asy-lum — are living in cities throughout the U.S. legally barred from working to provide for themselves. Not surprisingly, individuals have either turned to unauthorized work or have faced homelessness, straining resources in municipalities around the United States. Members of Congress have proposed com-peting changes to existing law to resolve this situation, but partisan gridlock has stymied those eorts. In June 2024, the Biden-Harris administration implemented a new regulation, reinterpreting existing law such that most individuals who cross the border unlawfully are presumed to be ineligible for asylum, with very limited exceptions. That regulation faces legal chal-lenges from those who argue that this policy contradicts the clear language of the existing statute, but it is in eect as of the publication of this report. The number of apprehensions at the U.S-Mexico border has dropped signifi-cantly, to the lowest levels since September 2020, likely as a result of this new rule as well as increased border enforcement by the Mex-ican government under diplomatic pressure from the United States. This new policy of the Biden-Harris adminis-tration, however, has left those with genuine asylum claims — including those persecut-ed because of their faith in Jesus — at pro-found risk. Many wait for months in shelters on the Mexican side of the border, often op-erated by under-resourced local churches, for the opportunity to seek asylum through the CBP One app. Having fled persecution in their countries of origin, they now face horri-fyingly high rates of violence, extortion and kidnapping in some Mexican border com-munities, especially for women and children. On September 30, 2024, the Biden-Harris administration updated these regulations to further restrict the situations in which some-one who crosses the border between ports of entry could apply for asylum. Leaders of World Relief and of Open Doors US have armed the need for reforms to im-prove border security and the asylum process, both to ensure faster access to permanent protection for those who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution and to deter those without a genuine fear of persecution from misusing the asylum process. However, we have also insisted that we must never simply give up on our nation’s moral and legal commitment to asylum. Our na-tion should never return someone who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of perse-cution to a situation of danger or even mar-tyrdom. Any proposal that ends asylum alto-gether or rolls back due process would be a betrayal of our nation’s commitment to oer refuge to those persecuted because of their faith. A migrant family stands in a shelter in Mexico where they live while waiting for their appointment to cross the border.

20 | STATE OF THE GOLDEN DOORSouzan held a Bible study in her home. A seemingly benign, everyday activity. Except… Souzan lived in Iran. She had been secretly teaching the Bible in her home for years when one of her friends brought two new friends. Souzan didn’t know these new people, and she wasn’t sure of their motives. Did they want to learn about the Bible and become Christians, or what was their pur-pose? Soon, both she and her husband began to notice that they were being watched. Given the well-documented repression of the Iranian regime toward Christians and other re-ligious minorities, they knew that they could be imprisoned or worse. They made the di-cult decision to sell their businesses and their possessions and escape to Indonesia, where they were able to obtain visas. They hoped to stay in Indonesia for just a short time, but they ended up there for twelve years, where they struggled since they were ineligible to work lawfully and support themselves. Finally, Souzan and her daughter and son were approved for resettlement to the United States. They arrived in Spokane, Washington, on September 26, 2023. “My life in Iran was very good … I live like rich people … But we cannot go to church. We cannot pray,” reflects Souzan. “I chose the freedom — free to pray, free to go anywhere. Especially for my children.” Souzan and her two children were three of 342 Iranian Christians resettled to the U.S. in FY23, an increase of 533 percent from FY20, when just 54 Iranian Christians were resettled. Here and throughout this report, some names have been changed to protect the safety of individuals who may still be at risk of persecution for their faith. TESTIMONY:SOUZANIMAGE BY ELNAZ ASADIIRAN

IMAGE BY ELNAZ ASADI21TAKE ACTIONWe encourage you to pray: • For persecuted Christians throughout the world, that they would be protected from danger, allowed to practice their faith freely and strengthened to perse-vere despite hardship. • For persecuted and displaced people of any faith, that their dignity and value would be armed by all. • For the global Church, that we would stand in solidarity with those who are persecuted so we can be a credible wit-ness standing with those in situations of vulnerability. • For those in positions of governmental authority, both in the U.S. and in other countries, that they would pursue justice and respect the religious freedom and other human rights of all. • For those pursuing positions of authority in upcoming elections, that each candi-date would understand and articulate the connections between religious freedom and forced migration, advocate for the protection of those persecuted for their faith and consistently employ rhetoric that arms their dignity. We encourage the U.S. government, and for you to advocate for your elected ocials: • To consistently prioritize the advance-ment of international religious freedom, and to leverage diplomatic influence to urge all countries to reduce religious per-secution and discrimination. • To sustain the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program, both consistently setting the annual refugee ceiling at a high level such as 125,000 and investing in the overseas processing and domestic reset-tlement infrastructure to ensure that this goal is met. • To ensure that those persecuted for their faith continue to have access to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program along-side those persecuted for other reasons. • To sustain and continue to improve the Welcome Corps private sponsorship pro-cess, which allows everyday Americans to name specific refugees abroad for re-settlement, allowing Americans to stand with specific individuals and families who have fled persecution on account of their faith. • To reject changes to asylum processing that reduce access to due process and present new barriers to those with cred-ible fears of persecution from accessing protection in the United States. • To reform our border and asylum policies in ways that both improve security and protect due process for those who pro-fess to be fleeing persecution. We believe that U.S. Christians have an important role to play in standing with per-secuted brothers and sisters in Christ, and with others who face persecution, both in prayer and in advocacy.

ABOUT WORLD RELIEF& OPEN DOORS USWorld Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. The organization was found-ed in the aftermath of World War II to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of war-torn Europe. Since then, for 80 years, across 100 countries, World Relief has partnered with local churches and communities to develop sustainable, local-ly-driven solutions to some of our world’s greatest problems, including partnering with the U.S. State Department and with thousands of local churches to resettle more than 300,000 ref-ugees to the United States since 1979. Learn more at www.worldrelief.org. Open Doors US is part of the global ministry of Open Doors. Open Doors originated in 1955 when its founder, Brother An-drew, began smuggling Bibles to Christians behind the Iron Curtain. Now, Open Doors works in more than 70 countries, supplying Bibles; training church leaders; providing practical aid, emergency relief, and long-term support; and strengthen-ing Christians who suer persecution and discrimination for their faith. For more information, visit OpenDoorsUS.org.