{UAH} DONALD J TRUMP IS THE ENEMY OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE ->Part two
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Biden keeps Trump’s cap on refugee admissions despite saying he’d expand it
President Biden signed an executive order on Friday to keep last fiscal year's numbers in place.Getty Images
President Biden has opted to retain the Trump administration’s 15,000 cap on refugee admissions to the US despite earlier proposing that the cap be expanded to 62,500.
Biden signed the executive order on Friday to keep last fiscal year’s numbers in place, but broadened the regions from which the US will accept refugees to include parts of Africa and the Middle East, reinstating countries banned under former President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump banned refugees from certain countries in the Middle East and Africa while in office. AFP via Getty Images
“The United States has a proud, bipartisan tradition of providing refugees protection through resettlement. In this time of great global need, the United States must demonstrate its robust commitment as a nation by resettling the world’s most vulnerable refugees,” he said in a statement.
“As we face the largest global refugee crisis in history, with 29.6 million refugees worldwide, resettlement serves as a critical tool in providing protection to those fleeing persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
The move was a significant walk-back from the State Department’s proposal to Congress in February aiming to allow for more than 60,000 admissions for the fiscal year ending this September.
A senior White House official told the New York Times the decision to keep the numbers in place comes as the administration faces bipartisan criticisms for the surge of migrants at the southern border.
The decision to keep the numbers in place has been met with sharp pushback from progressive lawmakers who blasted the Trump administration’s policy as restrictive and urged Biden to rethink his decision.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, blasted Biden for breaking “his promise to restore our humanity.”
“While this administration inherited a broken immigration system that was gutted and sabotaged by the previous president, it is on all of us to fix it — quickly. A critical step to doing so is reversing the attack on the refugee resettlement program,” she said in a statement.
“I appreciate that President Biden eliminated geographic allocations but this is not sufficient. Each day that passes without signing the Emergency Presidential Determination is another day of signing off on Trump’s cruel policies. President Biden must raise the cap, restore regional allocations, and resume resettlement based on vulnerability.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) referred to the move in a tweet as “completely and utterly unacceptable” arguing the administration was upholding “xenophobic and racist policies.”
“Completely and utterly unacceptable. Biden promised to welcome immigrants, and people voted for him based on that promise. Upholding the xenophobic and racist policies of the Trump admin, incl the historically low + plummeted refugee cap, is flat out wrong. Keep your promise,” she tweeted.
Rep. Illhan Omar (D-Minn.) pointed to a recent letter calling for the Biden administration to act more swiftly on increasing the numbers, calling the reversal on their earlier proposal “shameful.”
“As a refugee, I know finding a home is a matter of life or death for children around the world. It is shameful that @POTUS is reneging on a key promise to welcome refugees, moments after @RepSchakowsky @RepJayapal, myself and others called on him to increase the refugee cap,” she tweeted.
And Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, argued the cap prevents “the Department of State from admitting vetted refugees currently waiting in the system who do not fit into the unprecedentedly narrow refugee categories designated by the Trump administration” and hinders the administration from moving forward with its goal to allow of allowing 125,000 refugees in coming months.
“The United States has a proud, bipartisan tradition of providing refugees protection through resettlement. In this time of great global need, the United States must demonstrate its robust commitment as a nation by resettling the world’s most vulnerable refugees,” he said in a statement.
Under the withering criticism, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki later Friday issued a statement that sought to pin the blame on the Trump administration and promised more refugees would be let in in the future.
“For the past few weeks, [President Biden] has been consulting with his advisors to determine what number of refugees could realistically be admitted to the United States between now and Oct. 1,” she said. “Given the decimated refugee admissions program we inherited, and burdens on the Office of Refugee Resettlement, his initial goal of 62,500 seems unlikely.
“While finalizing that determination, the President was urged to take immediate action to reverse the Trump policy that banned refugees from many key regions, to enable flights from those regions to begin within days; today’s order did that. With that done, we expect the President to set a final, increased refugee cap for the remainder of this fiscal year by May 15.”
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