Trump administration lowers refugee cap

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, the 4th of November.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re happy you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

First up on The World and Everything in It, capping refugee admissions.

The Trump administration last week confirmed that it’s cutting the number of refugees the U.S. will accept to 75-hundred for the new fiscal year. That’s down from the 125-thousand ceiling under President Biden — the program that brought in people from war-torn regions across Africa and the Middle East—including many from Muslim-majority countries like Somalia, Syria, and Afghanistan.

Supporters say the new limit restores some order to a U.S. system overwhelmed by illegal immigration.

REICHARD: But opponents say it leaves persecuted Christians and U.S. allies out in the cold. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher reports.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: When Donald Trump returned to the presidency promising to protect Christians, advocates for persecuted refugees were hopeful.

SOERENS: Well, it's just profoundly disappointing.

Matthew Soerens is vice president of policy and advocacy at World Relief.

SOERENS: You know, the president has talked a lot about standing with persecuted Christians and this basically makes that impossible at least in terms of offering refuge to those who fled persecution on account of their faith

The United States established the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP, in 1980. The goal of the program was to provide a way for refugees to enter the United States in the wake of the Vietnam War. Federal law defines refugees as people fleeing persecution based on their religion, race, or political opinion. Soerens and others say the program runs one of the most rigorous immigrant vetting processes in the world. It’s since been used to bring in refugees from countries like Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Syria.

But the Trump administration last week decided to wind the program down significantly, saying it would only let a historic low of 7,500 refugees into the country. The administration also said it was reserving those slots, quote, “primarily” for White Afrikaners from South Africa and others fleeing “illegal or unjust discrimination.”

But Matthew Soerens says that Afrikaners and people facing discrimination, fit into a very different group of people from what the USRAP program was originally designed to help.

SOERENS: The administration is using the language of discrimination in this order instead of the language of the law, which is a well-founded fear of persecution. Not that I want anyone to be discriminated against, but persecution is a fairly high standard under the law…

That’s not the only part of the law that refugee advocates say the White House is skirting around.

RASKIN: There are huge flaws in terms of what has just happened.

That’s Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin from Maryland speaking in a virtual press conference last week. He says the administration ignored federal law in setting the refugee ceiling.

RASKIN: The administration never consulted the majority or minority leaders of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, never came and spoke to Congress, despite the fact that that is required by law and has never been violated before, to my knowledge, by any administration.

WORLD asked the White House if those congressional conversations took place before the administration confirmed its refugee cap. The White House sidestepped in an email response and said it had long made cleaning up former President Joe Biden’s broken immigration system a priority. It added that it would consult with Congress after the current government shutdown was over.

White House allies have said scaling back on refugees is a necessary step.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina spoke with WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta near the Senate subway:

GRAHAM: I think we got plenty of people uh in the country illegally we've got to deal with and one of the consequences of having the country overrun by illegal immigrants t hurts legal immigration.

Others agree. Here’s Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

HANKINSON: Given that number of people who are here illegally who need to be sorted through, a significant percentage of whom, in theory, are going to claim asylum, I would say a zero cap for a couple of years would make a lot of sense. So 7,500, you know, it's kind of an arbitrary number, but I would not be surprised to see the numbers go way, way down.

But winding down the program still remains discouraging to those working to offer persecuted Christians and others a safe haven. Here’s Soerens with World Relief.

SOERENS: It doesn't go very far towards standing with those who are persecuted for various reasons, including on account of their faith.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

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