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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says he's unsure whether Palestinian refugees will resettle in the Beehive State. But if history is any indication, it is unlikely the U.S. will open its doors to Palestinians like it did for Ukrainians or Afghans.
In the last 10 years, fewer than 600 Palestinian refugees have come to the U.S. under the traditional resettlement program, according to data from the U.S. Department of State. Last year, as the U.S. resettled nearly 60,000 refugees from around the world, just 56 Palestinians were admitted.
And in the days following Hamas' attack on Israel, calls to bar Palestinians from entering the U.S. have ramped up, including from Utah GOP Rep. Burgess Owens, who recently introduced a bill that would block the Biden administration from issuing visas to people from Gaza.
Cox on Thursday told reporters during the monthly PBS news conference that he's hopeful neighboring countries will step up but that Utah "cares deeply about refugees."
"We have a history of taking care of refugees," Cox said. "There would need to be an extreme vetting process here to make sure that we are very careful about who comes into our country; that's always critical. We would have to work very closely with the Department of Justice and Homeland Security and others who would have the burden of making sure that people who aren't sympathetic to destroying Israel and Jews are coming into our country."
Cox said he'll have those conversations "if and when the administration makes a decision."
But as of now, there is virtually no avenue for Palestinians displaced by the conflict to resettle in the U.S., says Aden Batar, director of migration and refugee services at Catholic Community Service's Salt Lake office.
"That is the administration's policy and we as a resettlement agency can only resettle what the State Department decides every year. Pretty much all we can do is advocate and give advice to the administration," Batar said.
Thousands of people displaced from conflict in Afghanistan and Ukraine have resettled in the U.S. in recent years, most doing so through special immigrant visas or humanitarian parole status. State data suggests around 1,000 Afghans resettled in Utah, and according to the Utah Ukrainian Association about 700 Ukrainians are living here since the Russian invasion, most of them sponsored by U.S. citizens through the Biden administration's Uniting for Ukraine program.
As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, Batar has not heard of any similar program in the works for Palestinians. According to the United Nations, in just 10 days nearly 1 million Palestinians were displaced.
Most Palestinians living in Utah are here under student or work visas — Batar estimates there to be around 1,000. But even those avenues are now likely closed, as most of the recently displaced Palestinians cannot reach a U.S. embassy.
"People are trapped ... they don't have anywhere to go," he said.
Without the visa pathway, displaced people often enter the U.S. through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mandate, a process that can take years.
However UNHCR does not operate in the Gaza Strip. Instead, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees oversees the region, although they don't resettle, which is partly why so few Palestinians end up in the U.S. The U.N. estimates there to be roughly 6 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, most living in camps in the West Bank or Gaza, and abroad in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
On Thursday, Cox extended his sympathy to displaced Palestinians
"Our hearts are broken for you as well. This is a deeply difficult and of course divisive issue. I will say I have zero empathy for Hamas, at all. And Hamas is bad for Palestinians. Hamas is evil. And I hope that Palestinians everywhere will stand up and speak up and reject what is happening," Cox said.
Utah's Jewish community was the recent target of a bomb threat, with the Congregation Kol Ami synagogue forced to evacuate following the attack by Hamas. Cox said anyone who harms, threatens or harasses Jewish Utahns "will be met with swift justice to the fullest extent of the law."
"I would say the exact same thing to our Palestinians. They are our neighbors, they are Utahns and we love them and we're grateful that they're here. And we extend those same protections to you as well," he said.
