Biden pledges to raise refugee cap to 125,000, up from 15,000 under Trump

published 4 February 2021

As he promised before taking office, President Biden announced his intention Thursday to raise the U.S.'s refugee cap.

During a speech full of foreign policy announcements, Biden said he would raise the limit on the number of refugees the U.S. can accept to 125,000. But that won't happen until the beginning of the next fiscal year, and the U.S. will have a large backlog of refugees to contend with once admissions reopen again.

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Total refugee admissions during Trump's administration often came well under his limits; The U.S. accepted 11,000 refugees in 2019-20, when the cap was 18,000, for example. As of last September, 120,000 refugees were awaiting resettlement in the U.S. It'll take a long time to work through that backlog, as well as to rebuild the U.S.'s immigration system and processes that had atrophied under Trump.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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