Refugee admissions to U.S. at record low

SAN DIEGO – Refugee admission to the United States fell to a record low in fiscal year 2021, despite President Joe Biden’s pledge to reverse the sharp cuts imposed by the Trump administration, according to figures received by The Associated Press.

In the fiscal year that ended Thursday, a total of 11,445 refugees were allowed to enter the US, said one person with access to the information, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the number.

That number does not include the tens of thousands of Afghans who were brought to the United States when American troops withdrew from Afghanistan and ended the 20 Years War there. Many of these Afghans were allowed into the country under a different legal status, known as humanitarian parole, which is why they are not included on the refugee list.

Still, the number underscores Biden’s challenges in reversing the restrictive refugee policies of the former President Donald Trump’s administration, which the program targeted as part of a broader campaign to reduce legal and illegal immigration to the United States.

The US President sets the maximum number of refugees admitted for each fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30. Biden took office almost four months after the start of the last fiscal year.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the number.

The total number of 11,445 refugee admissions is well below the national cap of 62,500 for the 2021 budget year set by Biden in May. It’s also below the all-time low ceiling of 15,000 that Trump originally set for the year.

Biden initially stated that he would not override the 15,000 person limit and said in an emergency decision that this “remains justified by humanitarian concerns”.

This led to rebukes from democratic allies who criticized him for failing to take the symbolic step of admitting more refugees that year. The White House quickly reversed course and raised the cap, though Biden said at the time that he was thinking, given the ongoing restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the work the government believes will be needed to rebuild the program.

Refugee attorneys said the record low number reflects the damage the Trump administration has done to the program. Prior to budget year 2021, the lowest number of admitted refugees was in budget year 2020 when the number reached 11,814.