The Biden administration has failed to facilitate the admission of more refugees into the United States, which was a campaign promise and a much longed-for change from the punitive policies of the Trump era. Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Mark Hetfield, the president and CEO of HIAS, the Jewish-American refugee advocacy group, to talk about the refugee resettlement program and what the Biden administration could — and should — do to serve this humanitarian need.

Then investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter joins to talk about her recent bombshell story about a covert operation to monitor citizens’ social media posts being run by the United States Postal Service. What do we know about this program, and what more can we find out?

GUESTS:

• Mark Hetfield (@MarkJHetfield), President and CEO, HIAS

• Jana Winter (@janawinter), Investigative Reporter and Contributor, Yahoo News

HOSTS:

• Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News

• Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

• Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

• “‘Broken promise’: Biden’s backtrack on refugees still slammed by advocates” by Laura Barrón-López, Politico (Apr. 16, 2021)

• “Why the White House wanted to avoid the refugee issue” by Natasha Korecki, Laura Barrón-López, and Nahal Toosi, Politico (Apr. 21, 2021)

• “The Postal Service is running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts” by Jana Winter, Yahoo News (Apr. 21, 2021)

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