CV NEWS FEED // The Biden administration announced that it will raise the cap on refugees admitted to the U.S. to 62,500, scuttling the Trump administration’s cap of 15,000.
The move comes less than a month after President Biden shocked many of his supporters by announcing he would be keeping former President Trump’s refugee cap.
As CatholicVote reported at the time, it was only “after intense blowback” that “the White House announced it would lift the cap next month after all:”
“What, from a moral standpoint, is more egregious,” asked CatholicVote on social media … “discouraging people from trying to enter the country illegally and then turning them away as promised … or actively encouraging them to abandon their homes and travel thousands of miles — and then turning them away?”
Last year, Biden first promised he would increase the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. from 15,000 to 125,000. In February, soon after his inauguration, he halved that number, promising at least to allow over 60,000 refugees during 2021.
The refugee cap of 62,500 announced this week represents something of a compromise between the much higher number Biden promised on the campaign trail and the drastically lower number he initially decided on last month.
Biden also admitted in his Monday announcement: “The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year,” since his decision came later than planned and the fiscal year will be ending relatively soon.
If this is indeed the final refugee policy for fiscal year 2021, it will likely leave many of Biden’s longtime supporters feeling stung.