“I think what the president and the White House have said today is that, based on what we’ve seen now in terms of heritage and being able to see what was there, what we could put in place, how quickly we could put it -in its place, it will be very difficult to meet the 62,000 of this fiscal year, “Blinken told ABC News, adding that the Trump-era political ban on refugees from the Middle East and Africa” already s ‘raised’. and refugees who are in the pipeline can now choose asylum in the US.
Pressed on whether the administration would accept 125,000 refugees next year, Blinken replied: “Look, the president has been clear about where he wants to go, but we need to focus on what we are capable of doing when I can do it.” .
The president reversed course last Saturday, saying his administration will increase the refugee limit.
“President Biden’s ultimate goal will greatly reflect his commitment to bringing refugees to the United States as far as possible, in line with our ability to prosecute them,” Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union “.
Sullivan, who, like Blinken, noted that Biden had lifted restrictions on refugees from certain African-Muslim-majority nations, similarly said the White House was struggling with a system that had been dismantled under the previous administration.
“What will drive our determination are the practical questions of whether we can fix the absolutely shattered system we had left to process refugees,” he told Bash.