Signs for fireworks sales and the cropping up of American flags on front porches remind us that on July 4 we commemorated our independence as a nation.  The day offers us an opportunity to reflect on our roots and our shared values as a people.

How fitting then, that on June 20, just two weeks before we celebrate our freedom from oppression and tyranny, the world celebrated World Refugee Day.  This important day reminds us of those around the globe who, like our ancestors, are fleeing brutality and persecution in order to seek liberty.

 America, it is often said, is a country of immigrants. It is to our nation’s great credit that so many of those immigrants have been – and still are – refugees.  We have been a welcoming beacon of hope to those around the world who face repression so severe that they must leave behind everything they know in order to seek safety and refuge.  By doing so, we have been enriched throughout our history by refugees like Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, painter Mark Chagall and Nobel laureate Thomas Mann.

At Freedom House, where I am executive director, we help refugees from around the world, providing legal services, housing, education, language training and job placement.  Most of our residents come from places like Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Central America – areas that have experienced some of humanity’s worst abuses. When they arrive at Freedom House, often as victims of torture, and having witnessed unspeakable brutality, they apply for asylum.  We represent their last chance for a new life for themselves and their families in a country where human rights are guaranteed and free speech is a given.

Unfortunately, since September 11, 2001, it has become much harder for refugees to find a welcoming home in our country.  That horrible event made many of us understandably cautious about just how welcoming we should be as a country. Sadly, our newfound caution too often turned to suspicion, fear and anger.

In addition to suffering for the acts of a small number of violent terrorists, refugees seeking safe harbor in the United States are often swept up in our country’s debate over illegal immigration.  It’s critical to understand that refugees seeking asylum are engaged in a legal process.  Their presence here is sanctioned by our government, though they must operate with restrictions, such as not being permitted to work until asylum is granted.  They are fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country and are here seeking safety.  

We must, of course, protect our borders and carefully screen those who enter our country.  Our own safety, as we now know all too well, is not a given. 

But we must not, in the process of ensuring our safety, betray our nation’s great history of welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free…the homeless, the tempest-tossed.”

 As we celebrate our independence, we honor the sacrifice and courage it took to create a nation that enshrined the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Many of those courageous fighters had themselves fled persecution to seek a new life of freedom on our shores.  They risked their lives to protect that freedom. 

Two-hundred-and-thirty-two years later, many of the world’s people are still yearning to breathe free.  Let us continue to welcome them in the knowledge that by doing so we fulfill our nation’s purpose and remain a source of hope and inspiration to the oppressed the world over.

I thank you for your continued support for the work of Freedom House. Please know  that each gift directly saves a life.