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Biden’s new refugee program partners with group that promoted abolishment of ICE

The "Welcome Corps" allows Americans to “privately sponsor refugees."

Published: January 21, 2023 10:52am

Updated: January 21, 2023 10:54am

A new immigration program from the Biden administration is partnering with a group that once called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The White House’s Welcome Corps touts itself as “empower[ing] everyday Americans to come together to privately sponsor refugees.” The program lets participants “welcome refugees into local communities and directly assist refugee newcomers as they build new lives in the United States.”

Among the organizations that the WC has partnered with is Church World Service, a group that has at least once called for the disbandment of the United States’s immigration enforcement arm. 

The group in June of 2021 tweeted the hashtag “AbolishICE” in response to news that ICE workers had force-fed hunger strikers in their custody. 

CWS declares its mission as “[building] a world where everyone has food, voice and a safe place to call home.”

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