Statement by Displaced International on the 250th Anniversary of the Independence of the United States
On July 4, 2026, as the United States marks the 250th Anniversary of its Independence, Displaced International honors more than a nation’s founding. We honor the human search for freedom that has shaped America from the beginning. America has been built and renewed by generations who crossed oceans, borders, and barriers in search of safety, dignity, conscience, worship, work, and a future for their children. That same journey continues today in the lives of immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced families whose stories are carried through DI’s Displaced Voices.
“When I arrived in the United States and took my first history class at Wabash College, I learned that America’s early settlement could be understood through two simple words: ‘Cod’ and ‘God’—the search for freedom from poverty and freedom from persecution based on one’s belief, conscience, opinion, or social status,” said Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, DI President and Founder, echoing his recent World Refugee Day message. “That history should remind us that today’s refugees and immigrants are not strangers to America’s story; they are part of its continuing promise.”
That promise matters in a world where forced displacement remains one of the defining moral and policy challenges of our time. According to UNHCR’s Global Trends report, 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2025. They included 41.6 million refugees, 9 million asylum seekers, and 68.7 million people displaced inside their own countries by conflict and violence.
Behind these numbers are major refugee and displacement emergencies in Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, South Sudan, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar and the Rohingya crisis, and Gaza and Palestine under the wider UN humanitarian system. These are not statistics alone. They are families whose safety has been stolen by war, persecution, dictatorship, discrimination, poverty, climate stress, and the failure of peace.
As Ambassador Haidari has said, the world does not have a refugee problem. It has a failure-of-peace problem. The answer must therefore be both protection and prevention. Conflicts must end. Persecution must be confronted. Asylum and non-refoulement must be defended. Refugee resettlement and safe, lawful pathways must be expanded. Newcomers must be supported so they can rebuild and contribute with dignity, as DI continues to urge through its petition to halt forced returns of Afghan refugees.
America’s own leaders have reminded the nation that refuge and human rights are sources of strength. In his Farewell Address, President Ronald Reagan described America as a shining city whose “walls had doors,” open to those with “the will and the heart to get here.” President Jimmy Carter likewise affirmed that “human rights is the soul of our foreign policy”, rooted in America’s own sense of nationhood.
On this historic anniversary, DI calls on the United States to renew that tradition with courage and compassion. America should help end the wars and abuses that drive displacement. It should expand refugee resettlement and safe, lawful pathways. It should protect asylum seekers and stop forced returns to danger. It should support integration through housing, education, employment, language access, and community belonging. And it should invest in peacebuilding, so fewer people are forced to flee in the first place.
To offer refuge is not charity. It is fidelity to America’s founding promise. It is also a necessary step toward replacing displacement with dignity, safety, and peace.
