Biden to relax refugee limit but won’t say how much

Amid a storm of criticism that President Joe Biden reneged on a humanitarian commitment, the White House late Friday said it would raise the refugee ceiling this year after all. President Donald Trump set a historically low cap on this year’s refugee admissions before he left office. In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress the administration planned to hike the ceiling from 15,000 to 62,500, but the White House has waffled as a surge of asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border has dominated immigration news.

How many refugees will the United States accept? White House press secretary Jen Psaki said late Friday that Biden expects to raise the limit by May 15, but he likely won’t increase it as high as 62,500 like he said he would. Also on Friday, the president reversed a Trump-era policy that prioritized admissions for persecuted religious minorities and Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military.

Dig deeper: Read Charissa Koh’s report in Compassion about the Trump administration lowering the refugee ceiling.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.