A coalition of faith, national security, and community organizations are asking the president and Congress to bolden their leadership in finding solutions to the refugee crisis.
They gathered on Capitol Hill Thursday in advance of delivering 10,000 postcards to members of Congress.
"I can't forget and I'll never forget that Jesus, too, was a refugee. He had to go to Egypt, you may recall, and what would have happened if they wouldn't have accepted him?" Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., said.
His colleague, Rep. Bill Pascrell was direct, telling supporters, "This is home-baked prejudice. There's no other way to call it. Let's call it what it is."
"If they're equal in God's eyes and I thought what's we believed in and it doesn't matter where you're born, whether the Constitution exists in that country or not, they are equal in God's eyes," Rep. Pascrell continued.
The coalition believes America is ignoring its history and forgeting the many contributions of immigrants.
"Back in WWII, there were Jewish refugees that came by the thousands trying to get into the USA, but they were not allowed to come into this country because there was a fear they were Nazi spies and they were a threat to our nations security," Baltimore Imam Hassan Amin said. "But later on they were allowed in and many from this group have made positive contributions to the growth of our nation."
"Also we had Irish at one time, they were not allowed into this country because there was fear that they were going to bring Catholicism into this country because we were predominantly a protestant country," Imam Amin continued.
Millions of men, women and children have fled war in Syria. President Barack Obama has now exceeded his goal of accepting 10,000 refugees.
"This is not just a moral crisis that we face as a country and as a people it's a political crisis worldwide. Refugees are not a temporary problem. It is a permanent problem," James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, warned.