President Biden issued an executive order Thursday to increase refugee admissions and allow the United States to set the goal of providing safe haven to 125,000 people around the world fleeing violence, conflict and persecution during its first full fiscal year .
In the order, Mr. Biden called for an expansion of the decades-old U.S. refugee program, which was destroyed by former President Trump, who often posed refugees as economic and security risks. After former President Obama set a ceiling of 110,000 people before leaving office, Trump cut it each fiscal year, historically allocating 15,000 seats in 2020.
During a speech at the State Department last Thursday, Mr. Biden said the goal is to set a limit of 125,000 people for fiscal year 2022, which begins in October. Biden also said he directed the State Department to consult with Congress “to make an initial payment of this commitment as soon as possible,” and hinted that he could move to raising the limit to 15,000 for the current fiscal year.
“It will take time to rebuild what has been so damaged, but that is precisely what we will do,” Biden said during his remarks, noting that refugee resettlement has historically enjoyed bipartisan support.
Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that countries around the world received fewer than 23,000 refugees in 2020, the lowest number in nearly two decades, in part due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. The agency said that of the more than 20 million refugees it is helping in different countries, 1.44 million urgently need resettlement.
The United States admitted less than 12,000 refugees in fiscal year 2020 and received nearly 1,000 between October and December, according to the latest State Department data.
The modern U.S. refugee program, created in 1980, is designed to offer protection to people abroad who have been persecuted on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group, such as the community. LGBT.
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In his order on Thursday, Mr Biden said his administration would prioritize the resettlement of women, children and other people who suffer persecution because of their gender or sexual orientation. He also instructed an inter-agency review of ways to help displaced people climate change, even resettling them in the US
Earlier in the week, Democratic Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren urged Mr. Biden to develop a refugee policy that takes into account climate-driven migration, especially from Central America, a region ravaged by two hurricanes. last fall. The World Bank estimated that 1.4 million people in Mexico and Central America could emigrate by 2050 due to the effects of climate change, including crop failures.
“We are very encouraged to see that the Biden administration is aligned with our recommendations and that they are beginning the process of rebuilding this historically bipartisan program and returning the United States to its leading position on the world stage,” they said. write Nadler and Lofgren in their letter.
Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump moved to temporarily suspend the refugee program, arguing that more verification procedures needed to be implemented. In addition to drastically reducing admissions, Trump also issued an order allowing states and local jurisdictions to block the resettlement of refugees in their communities.
By his order on Thursday, Biden revoked Mr. Trump’s directives.
Biden ordered the Department of Homeland Security to consider conducting remote interviews with refugees and demanded that the Office of Personnel Management support the recruitment of more refugee agents. The president also called for an expansion of private and community sponsorship of refugees, an association on which the Canadian government has been based.
Mr. Trump’s changes caused nonprofit groups to help the government resettle refugees to close offices, lay off staff, and lose federal funds.
Matthew Soerens, the church’s mobilization director for World Relief, one of those resettlement agencies, said his group closed eight offices during the Trump administration. He said resettlement of 125,000 refugees for the remainder of fiscal year 2021 would likely be impossible, given the current infrastructure.
“We’re really looking forward to rebuilding and we’re excited about the opportunity,” Soerens told CBS News. “But we also do it as quickly as we can with limited resources. It won’t be something that will be rebuilt overnight.”
Resettlement agencies receive refugees when they arrive in the United States and help them stay, find work, enroll their children in schools, and other issues to facilitate their integration into American communities.
Meredith Owen, director of policy and advocacy for Church World Service, another resettlement agency, echoed Soerens’ comments.
“We will need the Biden administration to take concrete steps to rebuild domestic and overseas infrastructure so that we can really resettle the number of refugees we expect over the next four years,” Owen told CBS News, saying it should also to speed up the processing of refugees.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service closed or suspended services in 17 of its 48 resettlement offices over the past four years. While acknowledging the logistical challenges of increasing refugee admission, Krish Vignarajah, chairman of the group, highlighted the symbolism of Mr Biden’s commitment.
“Going up to the ceiling will literally save the lives of hundreds of thousands fleeing violence and persecution because of the color of their skin, how they worship or whom they love,” Vignarajah told CBS News.