The United States is on pace to admit no Christian refugees fleeing persecution from the world’s most severe countries of concern in fiscal year 2026, according to a new report from Open Doors US and the evangelical humanitarian organization World Relief.
The two organizations unveiled the fourth edition of their joint report, “State of the Golden Door: Evaluating Refugee Resettlement & Asylum in Light of Global Christian Persecution,” on Thursday at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. The report examines both global Christian persecution and U.S. refugee and asylum trends.
According to the report, refugee admissions from the 50 countries included on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List have effectively fallen to zero during fiscal year 2026, which ends later this month. World Relief and Open Doors said this could make FY2026 the first year on record, and possibly since the creation of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, in which no persecuted Christian refugees from those countries were resettled in the United States.
The organizations noted that the halt has affected persecuted people of other faiths as well, not only Christians. “Only three refugees were resettled from a country on the Open Doors World Watch List, and those individuals were not religious minorities,” the report states. “We can conclude with a high degree of confidence that in FY2026, no refugees experiencing religious persecution will be resettled in the U.S.”
The report criticizes President Donald Trump’s characterization of conditions at the southern border as an “invasion,” his January 2025 executive order suspending refugee resettlement, and administration guidance directing enforcement officials to “remove any noncitizens attempting to enter either at or between ports of entry even if they were attempting to seek asylum.”
Asylum approvals have also fallen sharply for applicants from countries on the World Watch List. The report found that the approval rate dropped from 58% in fiscal year 2023 to 10% in fiscal year 2026.
The findings come as Open Doors estimates that 388 million Christians worldwide face discrimination or persecution, or roughly one in seven Christians globally. Open Doors US President and CEO Ryan Brown said “the breadth of persecution” and “the depth of persecution” have both increased.
Brown pointed to Sub-Saharan Africa, where violence against Christians has continued to intensify, and to growing use of digital surveillance in countries such as China, where authorities increasingly monitor church activity.
The report argues that people fleeing documented religious persecution should be considered separately from other forms of migration.
“This report is specifically talking about those individuals that have a reasonable fear for their life and their safety because of their Christian faith and identity,” Brown added. “Throughout the Church history … the Holy Spirit has used people having to leave because of persecution to bring the Gospel and to … spark revival in different places around the globe.”
Brown urged Christians to “prayerfully consider those things to try to just separate those issues that often seem to convolute issues of border security, issues of folks chasing economic opportunity and look at this issue of Christian persecution and those being forced to flee persecution on its own merits.”
