[Episcopal Public Policy Network] Last week, the Presiding Bishop joined more than 200 national faith, refugee, and humanitarian leaders and organizations in an urgent call to President Obama and Congress. Without additional funding this year, the Office of Refugee Resettlement will face a budgetary shortfall, endangering self-sufficiency and integration resources for thousands of refugees and other vulnerable migrants within our communities.

Now, we need your voice.

Whether your church sponsored a refugee family, you volunteered with your local resettlement agency, you are an EMM staff member, you support this ministry of presence, or you are still learning about the refugee resettlement ministry, refugees need you to speak on their behalf and let your decision makers know that this program needs their support.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides services to newly arrived refugees to ease their transition to self-sufficiency, is facing a budgetary crisis. ORR not only provides services to tens of thousands of refugees each year but also serves the needs of an increasingly diverse group of migrants including asylees, victims of human trafficking and torture, Cuban-Haitian entrants, Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders, and unaccompanied alien children (UAC).

Over the past two years, record numbers of UACs have fled violence in Central America and arrived alone at the U.S. border, pushing ORR’s budget to a breaking point. In 2012 alone, the number of UACs increased from 8,000 to 14,000, straining existing programs and funding. For this current year, close to 20,000 children are expected to arrive, 6,000 more than last year, creating an expected budgetary shortfall of millions of dollars. ORR urgently needs additional funding for FY 2013 to care for these vulnerable children while continuing to provide vital support and integration services to all of the vulnerable migrants under its care and in our communities.

A lack of additional funding to respond to this crisis would be devastating for the vulnerable people we welcome into our communities each day. Please join the Presiding Bishop and Episcopalians across the country in support of refuges and vulnerable children- ask your members of Congress to provide this lifesaving funding in the Continuing Resolution for FY 2013.