On Tuesday, President Biden came under fire for holding off on increasing refugee numbers, going beyond the drastically low limit set by Donald Trump during his presidency. Resultantly, the vast majority of Senate Democrats have urged Biden to increase the number of refugee intake for this year.
At present, the fiscal year cap for refugee intake stands at a total of 15,000 and Biden has vowed to increase this figure by next month. 32 Democratic senators and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Dick Durbin wrote an open letter, where they put immense pressure on the President to increase the number of refugee admissions to 62500, following the number proposed by Biden himself two months ago. However, the White House has acknowledged that this target “seems unlikely” due to logistical roadblocks.
In addition, the letter also contained an appeal for President Biden to fulfill a promise he made in his presidential campaign: To bring up refugee admissions to their highest level since the 1990s. For this purpose, Senators have asked him to set a fiscal cap for next year at 125,000.
President Biden’s current refugee policies are in similar standing to Donald Trump’s, who capped the number of refugees entering the U.S during his rule. Although Biden had vowed to increase refugee admissions, he left the Democrats astounded when he signed a new refugee plan which made this year’s total only go up to 15,000. Consequently, Biden’s move sparked a wave of fury amongst Democrats and other party members, who blatantly accused him of not staying true to his words.
In response, the White House issued a statement that declared President Biden’s intention to increase the number of refugee admissions, but a specified target would not be announced before the middle of the next month. Moreover, in a talk with reporters, President Biden stated that he hasn’t yet increased the intake of refugees and his administration is working to deal with the unanticipated increase of migrants at the U.S-Mexico border.
Although President Biden has made incessant efforts to overturn the policies of his predecessor, Democrats, and other parties have remained unsatisfied- they are still pushing him to do more. Many of his party members have persuaded him to increase the refugee intake, while House Democrats have urged him to do the opposite of what Trump did in migrant expulsion.
