Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the new ceiling on refugees entering the United States on Monday. The 30,000 maximum takes effect on October 1, 2018, at the start of the federal fiscal year.
The actual number admitted into the country could probably be lower, according to the Associated Press. Nearly 85,000 refugees were admitted into the country during the final year of the Obama administration.
Actually, according to NBC News, this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, the Trump administration’s cap was 45,000 — the lowest number set since the State Department began keeping refugee data back in 1980. And as it turns out, only 21,000 refugees were allowed to enter the U.S. – so the Trump administration didn’t even allow half of what it could have allowed.
During his announcement today, Pompeo also said that “this year the U.S. will also be inundated with more than 280,000 asylum seekers, who are immigrants who come to the U.S. to claim protection rather than applying for resettlement from abroad.”
A source of disagreement between officials and Trump
The lower numbers for refugees reflects Trump’s position on asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants – If he had his way, no one would be allowed to come into the country. Refugee advocates say the low number is a reflection of the fact that the Trump administration wants to limit overall immigration.
This has created a near constant debate between Trump-appointed officials at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security versus non-political officials at the State Department who argue the numbers should be higher to help in promoting diplomacy abroad.
Lawmakers from both parties and humanitarian organizations — including Christian charities have urged the White House to not further restrict the number of refugees allowed into the country, arguing it will further damage our credibility with our allies.
“This is another demonstration that the U.S. is stepping back from global leadership and engagement to protect refugees,” said Betsy Fisher, policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project.
“We were told that the slow rates of processing this year were due to the implementation of new security checks and that processing would pick back up. This number shows that was never the intent and the goal has always been to reduce the overall number of refugees admitted.”
