On behalf of the Dominican Family in the United States, I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the U.S. Catholic Bishops for their clear defense of and advocacy for some of the world’s most vulnerable children, women, and men: the millions of Iraqis and Syrians displaced by war and internal strife.

We Dominicans are encouraged by the bishops’ recent communication with the Administration and State Department on behalf of Iraqi and Syrian refugees and IDP’s. We are aware that the USCCB staff and other representatives of the bishops’ conference are working tirelessly on behalf of this population, for whom we Dominicans hold special concern.

Since 1999 the U.S. Dominican Family — sisters, friars and laity — have been actively engaged with our Dominican Family in Iraq. We have supported the community through the years of economic sanctions with prayer, advocacy, financial support, and delegations. Between 2001 and 2015 we welcomed seven Iraqi Dominican sisters to the U.S., assisting them with education and supporting their efforts to serve their community and the people of Iraq upon returning home. We have organized educational events, lobby days, protests, and fasts. We’ve supported Iraqi refugees who’ve arrived in the United States by serving in local resettlement offices. And we’ve raised more than a half million dollars in funds to support their current ministries in Iraq.

Last January, we commissioned a delegation to Iraqi Kurdistan to assure our sisters and brothers who were forced from their convents and homes on the Feast of the Transfiguration in 2014, that we have not forgotten them.

Every day the news from Iraq and Syria is more dire. As we observe the 13th anniversary of the ill-conceived U.S. invasion of Iraq, we find ourselves confronted with intractable international politics, the inability or unwillingness of local governments to avail their citizens of basic rights to food, water, shelter, and security, and the fear-based rhetoric of Americans who want to deny durable solution for so many Iraqis and Syrians who have family in the U.S.

As the process of democratic elections of our nation’s leadership continues we urge readers to add to the defense-of-life issues they consider, these criteria: Does the candidate have a plan to restore peace, security, and justice for my Iraqi Dominican sisters’ and brothers’ and the millions of Syrian refugees now displaced by war?