Associated Press FILE – Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speak with reporters following a vote on student loans on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) For more than 30 years, up to 2025, the U.S. was the largest funder of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This year, according to U.N. officials with access to early data, it has fallen to sixth place. Prior to his sudden death this weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was working with U.N. High Commissioner Barham Salih to stem those cuts.
Barham, a former Iraqi president and an old friend of Graham’s, was one of the first leaders to eulogize the South Carolina Republican. “I am deeply saddened by the passing of Senator Lindsey Graham, a valued partner over many years and a courageous voice in support of people displaced by conflict and persecution. His friendship, advocacy, and unwavering commitment to humanitarian causes will be remembered with gratitude and admiration,” Barham tweeted.
Graham visited Ukraine often; his last trip to Kyiv was Jul. 10, just a day before his death. Ukraine, meanwhile, was one of Barham’s first trips as high commissioner, and a focal point of his work.
While American diplomats seldom leave the embassy in Kyiv, and never head east toward the frontline, the high commission stations people in cities like Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, within miles of the front. They respond within minutes to drone, ballistic missile and guide bomb attacks, shuttering apartment windows with plywood and providing emergency sanitation kits, blankets and clothes. Their goal? Keep people in place to prevent them becoming refugees.
The same is true in Mexico, where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees sets up facilities to keep refugees in place to prevent their onward migration. Graham was a staunch proponent of “Remain in Mexico” policies, to force asylum-seekers from Central America to remain south of the border until Immigration and Customs Enforcement could hear their cases. The new leadership takes a back-to-basics approach, like Graham did, to distinguish between economic migrants and war refugees.
Barham instituted a “50 by 35” policy to reduce the refugee population by half within nine years.
Over recent days, the commissioner’s office has been in crisis mode.
Traditionally, the U.S. nominates the deputy high commissioner, a position equivalent to the chief operating officer of a multibillion-dollar organization. The Trump administration nominated Heritage Foundation scholar Simon Hankinson, a former Foreign Service Officer whose management experience was limited.
The U.N. asked for other candidates from which to choose — conservatives with greater experience — but the State Department forwarded no other candidates. Even though Europeans then demanded the post because of declining U.S. donations, the U.N. decided to choose an American. To assuage President Trump, they picked Tressa Rae Finerty, who served in a front office State Department position during his first administration.
Over the past three weeks, however, anti-immigration Republicans, and Hankinson himself, have written to allege that Barham and Finerty seek open borders and are working to undermine Trump. This appears more sour grapes than reality, but the resulting tempest in a teapot has reached senior levels of the State Department and White House, which are now threatening to cut off all remaining U.S. funds.
Such a move would not only be a humanitarian disaster but would also undercut U.S. national security. Consider the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which Europeans insist must retain a leading role in Gaza despite its longstanding infiltration by Hamas. Realistically, the high commissioner, which settles refugees rather than preserving them, is the alternative. Defunding this office gives Hamas a second chance.
Similarly, defunding could increase refugee attempts to cross from Mexico into the U.S. and would likely mean an exodus of Ukrainians.
Today, both Republicans and Democrats eulogize Graham. To truly honor his memory, though, they should recognize that compassion and national security are not mutually exclusive. Even though there is rot in the United Nations system, there is also promise. The trick is to understand which is which.
Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a distinguished fellow at the Usanas Foundation.
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THE HILL TV Rising: July 13, 2026 by TheHill.com 07/13/26 1:15 PM ET THE HILL TV / 24 hours ago 
