Trump's stricter refugee screening is splitting up families

The Trump administration has dramatically lowered the number of refugees admitted into the United States each year, and for some families, that has meant immigrating in pieces.

Stricter screening procedures are increasingly giving refugee families, especially those from the administration's list of "high-risk" countries, an awful choice, The Associated Press reports: Come to America without your spouse, child, or parent, or else don't come at all.

The AP report profiles Hadi Mohammed, an Iraqi man who worked as a security guard for American forces in his country. The job put his life at risk, so he applied for refugee status to come to the United States. After a five-year wait, Mohammed and his two young sons were admitted, but his wife has been stuck in Iraq for additional screening for over a year.

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"Every night," Mohammed's 9-year-old son "cries about mom, 'I need mom,'" he said. The State Department told the family she is undergoing "additional administrative processing" and it is impossible to "predict how long this administrative review will take."

Read the full AP report here, and read The Week's Edward Morrissey on "America's appalling about-face on refugees."