As the daughter of immigrants, I believe strongly in the promise of America.

I know that we become stronger by taking in the world’s “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This is not just an ideological hope. Research shows that refugees help us fiscally by paying substantially more in taxes than they receive in benefits. Refugees help us socially by bringing in energetic young people to supplement the workforce. And historically, refugees like Albert Einstein have helped to catapult the United States to the forefront of the world’s scientific community. We as a nation benefit from accepting refugees. We break our moral promise when we slam our doors in their faces.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement could not come at a worse time. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees announced this year that 68.5 million people around the world are currently displaced from their homes — the highest number ever recorded.

These people are living in trauma-inducing instability. I have taught in refugee camps in Lebanon, witnessing firsthand the ways in which forced displacement cuts through lives, putting unbearable strain on adults and children alike. I remember learning that my 6-year-old refugee students were pathologically scared of fire because their camp, built of shoddy cloth and wood, had burned to the ground in an electrical fire the previous winter. No child should have to live in such a state of constant fear.

By accepting refugees into the United States, we alleviate such fears and allow refugee families to begin to rebuild their lives in a stable environment. Refugees do not pose a danger to us, given the extreme vetting process they go through before arrival in the United States. Refugees make us stronger as a nation. When we reject refugees, as this administration is doing, we reject those who make us stronger and we break our founding promise. Do we no longer wish to be a shining city upon a hill?

Here in Utah, we have often demonstrated our compassion for others through our commitment to accepting refugees. The International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services in particular have done incredible work in helping refugee families transition into new, safe lives in our state. Gov. Gary Herbert has led the way in accepting refugees from around the world into Utah, even when it was nationally politically unpopular to do so.

Utahns know what it is to be persecuted, what it is to have to flee danger and seek safety in a new land again and again and again, so Utahns understand and empathize with refugees. But this empathy means nothing if refugees are unable to even make it to the United States.

This new Washington policy will drastically reduce the number of refugees who can enter the United States. This new policy will cut our already low refugee acceptance rates in half. We will extend our hands to practically no one.

Our elected officials should not be supporting this administration’s draconian halving of refugee resettlement numbers. This is not in keeping with our Utah values. Rather, our members of Congress should protect funding for refugee resettlement. They should also work to ensure the administration recognizes the relationships refugees have with U.S.-based resettlement agencies and family members in the U.S. This is how we can help to fulfill the promise of America.