--- title: President Truman's Powerful Message on U.S. Helping Refugees description: Amid World War II, President Harry Truman grappled with what he should do with the influx of refugees. Read his powerful message to Congress canonical: https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-20T20:30:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:36:32.005Z article:section: History og:title: This Was President Truman's Powerful Message on Why the U.S. Should Help Refugees og:description: "Their fate is in our hands and must now be decided" og:url: https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f56d601926e46ad/6989335d096a945edb6a2b5e/liberty.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Refugee children gazing at Statue of Lib og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Was President Truman's Powerful Message on Why the U.S. Should Help Refugees twitter:description: "Their fate is in our hands and must now be decided" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f56d601926e46ad/6989335d096a945edb6a2b5e/liberty.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Was President Truman's Powerful Message on Why the U.S. Should Help Refugees  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 20, 2018 8:30 PM UTC  Refugee children gazing at Statue of Liberty from railing of boat, ca. 1946. Refugee children gazing at Statue of Liberty from railing of boat, ca. 1946.Jerry Cooke—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 20, 2018 8:30 PM UTC Many crises faced by President Harry Truman when he came into office in the waning days of World War II. One of them would plague him for years: What to do with the [refugees](http://time.com/4029800/world-war-ii-refugee-photos-migrant-crisis/)? By some [counts](https://www.jstor.org/stable/142127?seq=1#page%5Fscan%5Ftab%5Fcontents), up to 60 million Europeans had been driven from their homes during the course of the war. At the time, the U.S. was [well-established](http://time.com/5101296/shithole-countries-immigration-history/) as a destination for immigrant — despite [turning away](http://time.com/3914106/history-migrant-ships-st-louis/) some migrants during the war — but didn’t have a specific law to deal with refugees per se. In late 1945, Truman [signed a directive](https://www.trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=515&st=&st1=) that allowed faster admission and resident-status changes for some refugees. But a wider-sweeping action would be needed, especially as the quota-based system that governed American immigration applied strict limits to the national origins that had the most need of help. Truman subsequently asked Congress to come up with a law that would address the crisis. This conversation was taking place in the years before the nascent United Nations — which marks June 20 as [World Refugee Day](http://www.un.org/en/events/refugeeday/) — [issued the 1951 Refugee Convention,](http://time.com/4022123/refugee-history-migrant-crisis/) which set out how the international community ought to address people who had been driven from their homes. But, though the world hadn’t yet agreed on those terms, the conversation about refugees was at a fever pitch; even years after the war’s end, millions remained unsettled. By mid-1947, when the refugee bill he’d requested was not forthcoming, Truman sent Congress a special message explaining why he considered the move necessary. Here’s how he explained in that message, the full text of which can be found [at the American Presidency Project website,](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12697) why he believed the United States needed such a law: --- > “” --- In 1948, the Displaced Persons Act — which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office [calls](https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/refugee-timeline) the first U.S. law specifically dealing with “refugees” as such — was passed. Truman, in a signing statement, [acknowledged](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12942) his unhappiness with a law that he saw as a halfhearted measure that was overly restrictive and biased. “I know what a bitter disappointment this bill is — to the many displaced victims of persecution who looked to the United States for hope; to the millions of our citizens who wanted to help them in the finest American spirit; to the many Members of the Congress who fought hard but unsuccessfully for a decent displaced persons bill,” he said. “I hope that this bitter disappointment will not turn to despair.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/"},"headline":"This Was President Truman's Powerful Message on Why the U.S. Should Help Refugees","datePublished":"2018-06-20T20:30:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:36:32.005Z","description":"Read the message he sent to Congress","url":"https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/","keywords":["politics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f56d601926e46ad/6989335d096a945edb6a2b5e/liberty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f56d601926e46ad/6989335d096a945edb6a2b5e/liberty.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Refugee children gazing at Statue of Lib","caption":"Refugee children gazing at Statue of Lib","creditText":"Jerry Cooke—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5315575/truman-refugee-message-1947/","name":"This Was President Truman's Powerful Message on Why the U.S. Should Help Refugees"}}]}] ```