Today is the 19th World Refugee Day, when the U.N. Refugee Agency asks the international community to show their solidarity with the world’s refugees. It is a day to honor the strength and courage of refugees, and to tell them they are not alone.

Since the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is defined as someone who has been forced to leave their country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster. They have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Right now, 68.5 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide: 25.4 million are refugees, 40 million are Internally Displaced Persons and 3.1 million are asylum seekers. The U.N. Refugee Agency’s functions are not just operational; it is obligated to protect and provide for refugees on a humanitarian and apolitical basis – and search for durable solutions.

Because of the large number of refugees, the agency is facing significant logistical, budgetary and personnel challenges. Of late, resettlement has been further challenged by the derisive actions of world leaders and rising nationalism, as well as misconceptions and misinformation spread against refugees.

Refugees are incredibly vulnerable people, possess nothing and hold no animosity toward any nation or people. They seek only to better themselves and become productive citizens in their new homeland. Instead of putting all hands on deck to assist them, some leaders use refugees’ vulnerability for political gain.

The history of immigration in America goes back much further than World War I. A major influx took place during the Colonial period, and it is safe to say that America greeted an unchecked number of immigrants due to a lack of policies. Many arrived in search of economic opportunity, and some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, for religious liberty. But beginning in the late 1800s, the United States started adopting laws that restricted immigrants from certain countries and set caps on how many could enter.

But, importantly, the legal basis for benevolent admissions of refugees began with the Refugee Act of 1980. Among other things, the Refugee Act helped create the Refugee Resettlement Program, which included not only screening of refugees but support for attaining speedy economic self-sufficiency after arrival.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed into law the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, a far-reaching immigration reform bill. This law not only granted amnesty to about 3 million undocumented immigrants who had entered the country before 1982, but tightened the southern border and ensured that employers would face strict penalties for hiring undocumented workers. President Reagan said he believed in the “idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though some time back they may have entered illegally.”

For many reasons, this immigration policy was not as successful as many thought it would be, in part because it failed to address the status of children of undocumented immigrants who were eligible for amnesty. So President Reagan signed an executive order to legalize the status of minor children.

The president of the United States determines how many refugees will be allowed into the country each year. Since the passage of the refugee resettlement Act in 1980, more than 3 million refugees from all over the world have found new hope and a new life in this country. In fiscal year 2016, the United States resettled 84,994 refugees, but the number plummeted to 22,491 in 2018. This is a record low in the 38 years of American refugee resettlement history. Most came from the Democratic Republic of Congo and 2,228 arrived from Bhutan, which is the largest refugee producer relative to its size and population.

Although welcoming refugees is an old tradition upheld by every administration, many people are unaware of the role refugees play in American society and therefore question their presence. Academics and nonprofits have researched the matter and the conclusion is that refugees are essential to the U.S. labor market. They fill entry-level, manual jobs and have a higher employment rate than the U.S.-born population. Most refugees arrive after decades in a refugee camp and so, for them, the job means everything. They have no option other than to embrace whatever job they land, even when they are overqualified.

The New American Economy, a bipartisan research organization, reveals that in New Hampshire 5,508 immigrants are self-employed and immigrants generated $81.3 million in business income in 2014. Also, 20,882 people are employed at a business owned by immigrants and contributed $78.5 million to Medicare.

NAE further reveals that refugees nationwide made more than $77 billion in household income and paid almost $21 billion in taxes in 2015. Their presence is often targeted in the political arena, but 80 CEOs and business leaders sent a letter to President Donald Trump outlining the economic cost of closing the door to refugees: “Overly restrictive immigration policies will likely cause billions of dollars in economic loss to our education and tourist industries and weakened foreign investment.”

Refugees, wherever they come from, are only looking for hope, home and a second chance to rebuild their lives. The Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island continues to welcome “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and the United States remains one of the most powerful and wealthiest nations on the planet, so we cannot refrain from our moral and international responsibilities. We must honor our commitments and make sure other countries do, too.

(Suraj Budathoki, a U.S. Refugee Congress delegate for New Hampshire and a graduate of Norwich University, lives in Manchester.)