It s not actually that confusing. 1. Biden isn t actually keeping President Trump s refugee cap in place. He s shooting it up to 125,000 for the next fiscal year. 2. He s keeping Trump s cap in place for now because his people need time to fundamentally reorient the prioritization of refugees. Under Obama, more Muslims were coming to America as refugees than Christians for the first time. Even though Christians are far more persecuted in far more countries than Muslims. Muslims tend to live in Muslim-majority countries that their ancestors had conquered, colonized, and enslaved, while many Christians are colonized populations living under religious persecution in the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia.
Members of a Syrian refugee family walk with their luggage at Beirut international airport ahead of their travel to the United States from Lebanon, February 8, 2017. | Reuters/Mohamed Azakir
Former President Donald Trump s cuts to the refugee ceiling will continue to impact resettlement for years as President Joe Biden’s commitment to resettle 125,000 refugees per fiscal year will only be as good as the infrastructure that has been decimated in recent years, advocates said Wednesday.
Representatives from faith-based groups and a national security expert discussed issues facing refugee resettlement in the United States with reporters on a zoom conference organized by the National Immigration Forum.
A family of Syrian refugees are interviewed by authorities in hope of being approved for passage to Canada at a refugee processing centre in Amman, Jordan, November 29, 2015. | Reuters/Paul Chiasson/Pool
Evangelical Christian leaders are expressing concerns over the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States to 15,000 next year, saying, “God calls us to love the foreigner and the stranger.”
The administration sent a notice to Congress this week saying it plans to admit no more than 15,000 refugees in fiscal year 2021 down from the ceiling of 18,000 for fiscal year 2020, according to The Associated Press, which said it was the lowest cap ever put on record.
Proposed legislation would give 11 million a path to citizenship and prioritize keeping families together.
Bekah McNeel| Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Evangelical advocates for immigrants and refugees were encouraged by President Joe Biden’s decision to send proposed reforms to Congress on his first day in office. Just hours after he was sworn in, Biden unveiled the US Citizenship Act of 2021.
“I see it as a positive sign,” said Matthew Soerens, national coordinator of the Evangelical Immigration Table. “The new administration is leading on this issue as a day one priority.”
Soerens and others have not yet reviewed the bill that will be sent to Congress but say the proposed legislation is the beginning of a long process toward much-needed reform.