WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report from World Relief and Open Doors US warns that the United States, long described as a “golden door” for those fleeing religious persecution, has for the first time in the quarter-century history of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program effectively shut that door to persecuted religious minorities altogether. The fourth edition of State of the Golden Door, released this month, arrives as global displacement has surged to 117 million people and the number of Christians facing persecution worldwide has climbed to an all-time high of 388 million — roughly 14% of the global Christian population.

Despite that surge, the report finds that fewer than 20,000 refugees are projected to be resettled in the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2026, with an unprecedented near-zero intake of refugees fleeing religious persecution. According to the report’s authors, not a single religious-minority refugee had been resettled in 2026 from any of the fifty countries on the Open Doors World Watch List, with less than a month remaining in the federal fiscal year at the time of writing.

“This year, however, the U.S. has not been a haven to Christians — or any other religious minority. The ‘golden door’ to those fleeing religious persecution has been effectively closed.” — Myal Greene, President & CEO, World Relief, and Ryan Brown, President & CEO, Open Doors US

A Founding Ideal Under Strain

The report traces the U.S. commitment to refugee protection to the aftermath of World War II and its codification in the 1980 Refugee Act, which established the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program still in operation today. Since then, the nation has welcomed nearly 3.7 million refugees, averaging roughly 73,500 admissions a year. But that legacy, the report argues, has grown increasingly inconsistent: after more than 100,000 admissions in FY2024, the U.S. is on track in FY2026 to fall near the historic low of 11,411 admissions set in FY2021.

More striking than the overall decline, the report says, is the disappearance of religious persecution as a priority. In FY2020, the top-listed priority in the presidential refugee determination was for those with a well-founded fear of religious persecution. The FY2026 determination, by contrast, allocates admissions almost solely to one ethnic-minority population — white South Africans, mostly of Afrikaner heritage — from a country the report notes has no significant record of religious persecution. The ceiling for that program was raised from 7,500 to 17,500 in June 2026, even as admissions for persecuted religious minorities from the World Watch List countries fell to zero.

Asylum Access Collapses at the Border

The report also documents a parallel contraction in the U.S. asylum system, particularly at the southern border. A series of executive orders since 2020 — including a declared national emergency, the deployment of Department of Defense resources, and a Supreme Court ruling in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado permitting the physical blocking of asylum seekers before they reach U.S. soil — have combined, the authors write, to functionally suspend asylum requests at ports of entry. The immigration-court approval rate for asylum claims, meanwhile, fell from 47.5% in FY2023 to just 7.7% in FY2026, with judges increasingly dismissing incomplete applications rather than allowing claimants to correct them.

Countries with severe records of Christian persecution have been especially affected. The report finds that Iran’s asylum approval rate, historically above 80%, fell to 38% in FY2025–26; India’s fell from above 62% to just 6%; and China’s fell from a high of 88% in FY2022 to 29% in FY2026.

Operation PARRIS and the Fear of Reopened Cases

A section of the report examines Operation PARRIS — Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening — a Department of Homeland Security initiative launched in January 2026 to reopen roughly 230,000 refugee cases from the previous administration. The operation led to the detention of about 150 refugees in Minnesota, including members of the Karen Christian community from Burma and Iranian Christian refugees connected to Los Angeles’s Cornerstone Church, before litigation in U.H.A v. Bondi and Jean A. v. Noem halted arrests and imposed a nationwide pause pending further rulings.

Third-Country Deportations Raise Non-Refoulement Concerns

The report further details U.S. agreements with 35 third countries — most in Africa and Central America — used to deport asylum seekers to nations where they have no ties, a practice the authors say has affected more than 21,000 people and, in at least one documented case involving an Iranian Christian convert, resulted in detention in a jungle camp in Panama. World Relief and Open Doors US describe the practice as being in tension with the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which bars returning refugees to places where their life or freedom would be threatened.

“Returning someone to a place of persecution — however indirectly — is a stark violation of the principles on which our nation was founded, and in direct contradiction to our beliefs as Christians.” — World Relief & Open Doors US

A Call to the U.S. Church and Congress

The report closes with a nonpartisan appeal, noting that both organizations have declined in four editions to endorse or criticize a specific administration or party. It cites Lifeway Research polling that 70% of evangelical Christians and 82% of Protestant pastors believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to accept refugees regardless of their faith. The authors call on Congress and the incoming FY2027 Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions to restore a priority category for religious persecution, reopen and adequately staff the Refugee Admissions Program, and reform asylum adjudication to preserve both border security and due process.

“We believe that all human beings are created in God’s image, with inherent dignity, and as such, are worth protecting,” the report’s opening letter states, describing the appeal as directed at the U.S. church ahead of the midterm congressional elections.