WASHINGTON – In an abrupt reversal, President Joe Biden signed an emergency determination on Friday that will limit the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States to 15,000 – keeping a Trump-era cap in a move critics called a shameful betrayal.
In February, Biden promised to lift the refugee cap to 62,500. But he changed course with little explanation, announcing the news on Friday through a senior administration official who said the White House needed to rebuild a broken U.S. resettlement program inherited from the Trump administration.
Democrats and human rights groups blasted the about-face in blistering term.
Rep. Ilham Omar, D-Minn., called Biden s decision to keep the Trump-era cap shameful.
Until immigration hard-liners began running amok in the White House four years ago, the United States stood as the global leader in accepting refugees for permanent resettlement more than 3.4 million people since the end of the Vietnam War. Among President Biden’s many challenges, as he acknowledged in a speech at the State Department on Thursday, will be to not only regain that status but also to resurrect the collapsed system of nonprofit agencies that do the actual work of resettling the new arrivals. It won’t be easy.
Why bother? Because it is who we are as a nation. Refugees seek resettlement because they do not have homes to which they can return safely, often because they face persecution on account of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion or politics. As a society, we believe in personal freedom, in the right to openly discuss political views without fear of retribution, to hold and express religious beliefs (or to not believe at all), and that all people should be t
Yolo assemblywoman’s bill would reaffirm protections for refugees
By Gerardo Zavala and Estefany Nunez
Special to The Daily Democrat
A new California bill pushes back against a 2019 executive order by President Donald Trump that limits refugee resettlement.
The bill, co-authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, whose district includes Woodland, will prevent California cities from withholding consent to continue allowing refugees no matter their sex, age, sexual orientation or ethnicity.
“It’s shocking to live here in the United States of America and people aren’t welcome,” Aguiar-Curry said. “That bill [AB 3133] was one of those bills that helps me sleep at night.”