Lawmakers Call On Biden To Formally Raise Refugee Cap After Delays : NPR

Progressive lawmakers are calling on President Biden to fulfill a campaign pledge and increase the number of refugees admitted to the U.S. this fiscal year from the record-low levels set in the Trump era.

“Having fought for four years against the Trump Administration’s full-scale assault on refugee resettlement in the United States, we were relieved to see you commit to increasing our refugee resettlement numbers so early in your Administration,” reads a letter from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Jan Schakosky, D-Ill.

“But until the Emergency Presidential Determination is finalized, our refugee policy remains unacceptably draconian and discriminatory.”

Biden could make an emergency presidential determination to increase the maximum number of refugees to be resettled in the U.S., but has yet to do so.

Refugee resettlement, a bipartisan issue since President Reagan signed the Refugee Act of 1980, became a political hot potato during the Trump years. The then-president made deep cuts to the maximum number of refugees the U.S. accepts each year, characterizing refugees as a danger to national security. The current level, 15,000, is the lowest since Reagan signed the law. In the year prior to Trump’s election, the U.S. resettled 84,995 refugees against a cap of 85,000. Candidate Joe Biden had promised to reverse the Trump-era declines.

The letter from Democratic lawmakers also referenced refugees who were cleared for resettlement but have been waiting in limbo until the change in policy is formalized by the White House.

“We must keep our promises to people who have fled unthinkably brutal conditions in their home countries and live up to our ambition to provide them a safe haven to re-start their lives,” the letter added.

Omar, who was one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress in 2018, is also the first African refugee to become a member of Congress.

The letter has 35 additional signatures as of Friday morning, including members of the so-called squad: Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

During the presidential campaign, Biden promised to set the yearly cap on refugee admissions to 125,000 and “raise it over time commensurate with our responsibility, our values, and the unprecedented global need.”

“The United States’ moral leadership on refugee issues was a point of bipartisan consensus for so many decades when I first got here,” he said at the State Department in February, pledging to approve an executive order to restore the admissions program to meet global demand. “It’s going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged, but that’s precisely what we’re going to do.”

The U.S. State Department issued a report to Congress proposing an increase in refugee admissions to 62,500 for the fiscal year.

During a White House press briefing on Thursday, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “remains committed to raising the refugee cap” but didn’t provide details on the timeline of the signing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday the U.S. has to “recognize [its] moral responsibility” in taking in refugees.

“I think right now we have, well, it’s a very few thousand, and we have to increase that number.”

Read the full letter below.