See amid these rocky mountains,
Zion’s standard wide unfurled,
Far above Missouri’s fountain,
Lo! it waves for all the world.Freedom, peace, and full salvation,
Are the blessings guaranteed;
Liberty to every nation,
Every tongue and every creed.
“The Mountain Standard,” by P.P. Pratt
On July 24, 1849, two years after the first company of Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah settlers gathered to celebrate Utah’s first formal Pioneer Day.
Among the speakers was Thomas Bullock, a pioneer himself. After a reading of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, Bullock read Parley P. Pratt’s poem.
The stanzas present Deseret as a place of religious liberty and extend that promise beyond the Saints. In Deseret, sect would not divide, for all were united with “shackles burst asunder.” There would be no “foreigner” in Deseret—only “a friend, a brother.”
Pratt’s invitation also served an immediate practical purpose. Emigration was central to the future of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the West. The journey from bondage to liberty was as physical as it was spiritual. Zion needed Saints; the Saints needed Zion.
Two short months later, Pratt’s invitation took institutional form. On October 6, 1849, The Church of Jesus Christ organized the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company. Bullock served as the company’s clerk, meticulously arranging passage for thousands of Latter-day Saints from around the world. Many soon followed in his footsteps and found freedom in the valleys of Deseret. The fund continued to finance this sacred migration for nearly forty years, until its forced disincorporation by the federal government in 1887.
That history offers Latter-day Saints a useful lens for considering the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The two programs are not the same. But they address related questions, and they call on similar spiritual instincts. How can a community help people fleeing persecution begin again?
Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company
The Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) was a loan program through which the Church paid in advance for Latter-day Saints’ travel to Utah. During the mid-1800s, The Church of Jesus Christ maintained a religious mandate that members migrate to Utah. The PEF provided the material means.
The General Assembly of the State of Deseret formally incorporated the PEF in September 1850. The legislation stated that “the general business of the Company” was to be “devoted…to promote, facilitate, and accomplish the Emigration of the Poor.” Stated motivations were both economic and religious. The state of Deseret needed laborers; Latter-day Saints needed liberty. The PEF offered both.
These two programs share profound moral and functional parallels.
The Church was keenly aware that many of these good and worthy people were fleeing very real persecution. The day before the ordinance was adopted, Elder George A. Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke “in behalf of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund” and recalled this experience:
We were surrounded by mobs and our 150 houses lighting the heavens with their lurid flames, at midnight, and when rapine, robbery, and violence ruled supreme in Illinois. At that time this people were defenceless; every liberty was taken from them.
Elder Smith said Latter-day Saints then resolved to leave Illinois. They covenanted to use their property and influence until every Latter-day Saint who wished to leave had reached safety.
The fund successfully accomplished both its economic and spiritual aims. From 1854 until the fund’s forcible federal dissolution in 1887, around 30 percent of all Latter-day Saint emigrants used PEF loans. That amounted to approximately 30,000 people.
Congress dissolved the PEF with the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. Congress hoped to end The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by undermining its source of growth and prosperity.
Today’s Perpetual Emigration Fund: The Refugee Program
Nearly a century after the federal government dismantled the PEF, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980 with bipartisan support. The law established the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, through which people facing persecution abroad—including many facing religious persecution—may seek resettlement in the United States.
The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is distinct from the U.S. asylum process, though both were established via the Refugee Act and serve individuals fleeing persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Asylum seekers request safety at or within the U.S. border; refugees request safety while outside the United States through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports both refugees and asylum seekers who enter the United States through employment, education, and other partner programs.
The modern refugee program no doubt differs structurally from its nineteenth-century predecessor. The historical PEF was a distinctly religious endeavor, organized by church leadership to gather a religiously homogeneous group to a small but growing community. The modern refugee program, by contrast, is secular and federally administered. It welcomes individuals of every background and belief across the country.
Yet while they belong to different eras and operate under different authorities, these two programs share profound moral and functional parallels.
Economic Similarities
The refugee program is literally a perpetual emigration fund and functions similarly to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund.
Many refugees finance their travel to the United States through a travel loan serviced by the International Organization for Migration. Refugees begin repaying these loans after they become financially self-sufficient. Their repayments help finance future refugee travel, making the program—like the PEF—a fund by and for refugees. On the eve of their journeys, refugees today sign a promissory note similar to the note signed by early Latter-day Saint pioneers.
The Refugee Program is also economically self-sustaining. Research conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2024 found that refugees and asylees contribute more to the American economy than they cost to resettle. Over a 15-year period, net fiscal benefits—primarily contributed through income and taxes—were estimated at over $123 billion.
The similarities between the PEF and the refugee program are not simply economic.
Utah’s 14,400 refugees generate over $572 million in household income and hold over $425 million in spending power, according to the American Immigration Council. They also pay over $50 million in state and local taxes. As births decline and Utah’s existing population ages, migration will only increase in importance—becoming a significant driver of Utah’s population growth. Just as the PEF was intended to bring “a great army of laborers” to “help here, on the farm and in the Shop, building and on the public works,” the refugee program is a critical contributor to Utah’s economic future.
Religious & Spiritual Similarities
But the similarities between the PEF and the refugee program are not simply economic; they are also spiritual. By law, all refugees have fled persecution of some kind; many have fled religious persecution. The Lautenberg Program is reserved for people fleeing religious persecution. It has resettled tens of thousands of religious refugees. Christians made up at least half of the refugees resettled in the United States over the past ten years. Many refugees of other faiths have also been resettled.
Life-threatening, religiously motivated persecution is no longer a reality for most Latter-day Saints. However, it remains a reality for our brothers and sisters in faith throughout the world. In 1853, President Brigham Young encouraged Latter-day Saints to allow their past to guide their future:
We might ask you to reflect upon the days that you have spent in yonder distant land, where you could seldom walk the streets or enter a shop, like another citizen, without the finger of scorn being pointed at you, without suffering the malignant taunts and sneers of the ungodly, for the sake of your ‘religion.’
President Young’s urgent call could just as easily describe the persecution faced by refugees of faith today. According to tracking data compiled by Global Christian Relief, 4,849 Christians were killed for their faith during its latest reporting period. Over that same time frame, 67,843 Christians were physically or mentally abused worldwide for faith-related reasons. Religious minorities around the world face a rising tide of persecution. They include members of underground churches in North Korea and people fleeing hostile regimes in Iran or Afghanistan. Tragically, just as their need for sanctuary has grown, America’s doors are closing.
The persecution of modern-day refugees reinforces the purpose of Pioneer Day: to remember the struggle of our pioneer ancestors, remain grateful for the grace—material and spiritual—that enabled our contemporary religious and economic prosperity, and retain compassion for those currently enduring similar plights. While Latter-day Saints today can no longer contribute to the PEF, they can support the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
The Refugee Program Is At Risk
Unfortunately, the similarities between the modern U.S. refugee admissions program and the PEF also extend to their detractors. Just as the federal government forcibly disbanded the PEF to prevent the continued immigration of Latter-day Saints, the federal government is now attempting to halt the resettlement of refugees fleeing persecution through the refugee program.
The forced dissolution of the PEF was the culmination of a decades-long federal campaign. In 1885, two years before the dissolution of the PEF, President Grover Cleveland made an extraordinary request to Congress. He asked for a law to “prevent the importation of Mormons into the country.” His words echoed a hostile 1879 State Department circular issued by Secretary William M. Evarts. The circular directed U.S. diplomatic and consular officers in Europe to enlist foreign governments in halting the emigration of Latter-day Saint converts. In addition to dissolving the PEF, the Edmunds-Tucker Act barred the territorial legislature from passing any law intended to bring people into the territory.
Just as the federal government disbanded the PEF, the current federal government is attempting to dismantle the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. In January 2025, it suspended refugee admissions, freezing funding for essential infrastructure and services. Admissions resumed in October 2025, but the federal government set a historically low refugee admissions goal for fiscal year 2026 and adopted unprecedentedly narrow admissions priorities. As of May 31, 2026, only 6,668 refugees have been admitted to the U.S. this fiscal year. Of those, 6,665 were from South Africa; only three were from Afghanistan, a country with well-substantiated refugee claims. Before 2016, the United States admitted an average of 95,000 refugees per year.
As a result, the refugee program’s infrastructure is shrinking. Historically low funding has accompanied historically low admissions; many local resettlement agencies have been forced to close their doors due to financial uncertainty. Financial and operational volatility forced two of America’s longest-standing resettlement agencies, those run by the Catholic and Episcopal churches, to withdraw from the refugee program in the spring of 2025.
Immigration debates are polarizing; supporting the refugee program doesn’t have to be.
Even those refugees who have already been resettled are at risk. They are rebuilding their lives in our communities, sitting in our pews, and working in our shops. Meanwhile, in an eerie echo from the PEF’s past, the federal government has attempted to refuse refugee green card applications, re-vet refugees, and, in some cases, rescind refugee status.
In 1889, federal judge Thomas J. Anderson used a similar tactic to halt Latter-day Saint migration, famously refusing to naturalize Latter-day Saint immigrants.
While Utah’s support for refugees largely continues, the state has not escaped the negative impacts of federal disinvestment. Utah regularly welcomes over 1,000 refugees per year. This year, Utah has only welcomed 70—all South Afrikaners. Catholic Community Services of Utah, one of the state’s four refugee resettlement agencies, initially announced that its resettlement program would end. After an outpouring of private donations, the agency reversed course and temporarily continued services for resettled refugees. But many of Utah’s refugee families remain in limbo, unable to receive green cards and at risk of the federal government rescinding their refugee status.
Our state’s ability to continue its pioneer tradition of offering refuge to those fleeing religious and other forms of persecution is at risk.
A Perpetual Refugee Program: Building Bipartisan Support For A Refugee Bottom Line
Latter-day Saints’ history does not settle every question of public policy related to refugees. But that history can inspire Latter-day Saints to honor their pioneer heritage by ensuring the United States remains a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution. As proposed by Governor Herbert in celebration of Pioneer Day, a statutory admissions floor is one proposal worth serious consideration. Such a floor would help communities sustain their economies with a more predictable flow of refugees.
Latter-day Saints can help by writing to their city council members, mayors, state legislators, and governor, to encourage them to call for a robust refugee admissions floor.
Immigration debates are polarizing; supporting the refugee program doesn’t have to be. Refugee programming cannot survive without predictability. The PEF arose in a similarly polarizing environment within the Church, yet church leaders considered it a “a subject worthy of consideration and encouragement, fraught, as it is, with the best interest of society.”
This Pioneer Day could be an ideal opportunity to carry forward Pratt’s promise.
As Brigham Young urged Latter-day Saints, it is their obligation to remember the pioneers of their faith and their path to freedom and ensure this path remains available in perpetuity.
The author wishes to thank Sophie Huttner for her editorial assistance with this article.
