Trump administration sets refugee cap at its lowest level in history

The U.S. will cap its refugee admissions at 15,000 in the next fiscal year, the Trump administration announced Friday. That's the lowest level since the 1980 Refugee Act created the cap.

President Trump has continually slashed the limit since he took office in 2017, setting it at 18,000 in 2020. It didn't even come close to reaching that limit when the 2020 fiscal year ended, only admitting 9,000 refugees as of Aug. 31. The State Department said Thursday it "anticipates receiving more than 300,000 new refugees and asylum claims in Fiscal Year 2021." Of that number, 15,000 would be accepted as refugees and the rest would enter the already-overflowing U.S. asylum process. The State Department justified the low number by claiming it was chosen to "prioritize the safety and well-being of Americans, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic." Refugee admissions did slow dramatically during the pandemic.

Humanitarian groups have criticized the Trump administration for increasingly rejecting refugees. "This absurdly low number is based on nothing more than xenophobic political pandering, and it's no surprise that this all-time low comes during an election year," Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, told The Washington Post.

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