April 16, 2021— President Biden today reversed his promise, made publicly and in a message to Congress, to increase refugee admissions this year to 62,500. This action closes the door to refugees who have been waiting for years to come to safety in the United States.

“President Biden just slammed the door on refugees,” said Veena Iyer, Executive Director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “By saying he will abide by the historically and incredibly low limit for refugee admissions set by Trump, he has betrayed his promise.”

Refugee resettlement organizations, while gutted by the Trump administration, remain ready and willing to ramp up resettlement. They have repeatedly called on President Biden to keep his promise and begin admitting refugees. Just last week, John Slocum, interim executive director of Refugee Council USA, said that refugee admissions of 62,500 this year would be “fully within our capacity to manage, both in terms of the relevant government agencies, as well as the nonprofit and faith-based entities that serve refugees through a nationwide public-private partnership.”

Biden’s broken promise means refugees who have already been through the arduous three-year process of vetting and approval, who have already disposed of their possessions, and who have visas and airline tickets in hand, will not be admitted.

Biden’s policy reversal will cost lives, like the life of the Afghan man assassinated by the Taliban in January because of his assistance to the U.S. military. His visa had been approved, but he and his family were kept waiting in Afghanistan. His family is still there, and still in danger.

“Today’s announcement is a sore disappointment to refugees worldwide and to refugee communities in Minnesota and the United States,” said Iyer. “We can and should be welcoming refugees in light of humanitarian crises, such as the one in Myanmar, not keeping unjust, xenophobic policies in place.”

 

Most undocumented immigrants in the United States have lived here for more than 10 years. Some are young Dreamers, others have lived here for decades with Temporary Protected Status. Millions are essential workers, who have protected and supported the entire country during the pandemic. Current law gives them no path to citizenship, no “line” to wait in, no way to ever “become legal.” The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would protect their lives, families, homes, and jobs by creating a path to citizenship. These protections are not only long overdue but are also critical to our country’s economic recovery.

The proposed law would also encourage family reunification by allowing spouses and children of Legal Permanent Residents to apply for visas immediately, without waiting for years for a quota number. The law would abolish punitive three-year and ten-year bars which have prevented many family members from getting green cards.

Other family members with approved petitions would be allowed to remain in the United States while waiting for a quota number.

Just about three-quarters of the U.S. public supports a path to legal status and citizenship for undocumented immigrants. America wants to formally recognize undocumented immigrants as the Americans they already are.

We urge Congress to listen to their constituents and pass the U.S. Citizenship Act together with the New Way Forward Act to address criminalization of immigrants.

President Biden promised to immediately increase the number of refugees allowed to resettle into the United States. He has not yet done that. Midway through the 2021 fiscal year, only 2,050 refugees have been admitted to the United States, a new historical low. The International Rescue Committee reports:

“While the Biden administration has taken important steps to rebuild the USRAP – issuing the President’s February Executive Order 14013, submitting a revised proposed Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for FY21, and conducting the required consultations with Congress – there has now been an unexplained and unjustified eight-week delay in issuing the revised refugee admissions policy. This delay means that highly restrictive and discriminatory Trump era policies remain firmly in place. As a result, tens of thousands of already-cleared refugees remain barred from resettlement and over 700 resettlement flights have been cancelled, leaving vulnerable refugees in uncertain limbo.”

Call President Biden at the White House comment line: 202-456-1111. Urge him to act NOW to protect and welcome refugees.

Suggested message: Please act today to sign the updated presidential determination for FY 2021, which would increase the refugee ceiling to 62,500. Your signature is needed to allow refugees, who have in many cases already been waiting for years or even decades, to finally find protection in the U.S.

Without your signature, these refugees risk losing everything as scheduled flights to bring them here are being cancelled. This delay is directly impacting the lives and safety of refugees around the world. Please act immediately to protect and save lives.

For more information:

Mary Elizabeth Margolis, the Acting Managing Director of Voice for Refuge Action Fund, writes in The Hill:

“To his credit, after inauguration President Biden quickly signaled his intent to follow through on his commitment to support refugee resettlement. Through executive action, he rescinded the previous administration’s wrongful refugee bans and laid the foundation to strengthen refugee protections and increase refugee admissions. President Biden also announced his plan to increase the refugee admissions goal, known as the presidential determination, for the remainder of this fiscal year to 62,500 — from the historic low of 15,000 — and then to 125,000 for Fiscal Year 2022. This change would also end the Trump-era guidelines harmfully restricting which refugees could be resettled, which had made even meeting the tiny existing goal nearly impossible. ….

“It has been almost two months since his announcement and more than one month since the consultations, and President Biden has still not signed on the dotted line to allow more refugees to travel.

“Seven hundred flights have been canceled, and there is now an indefinite suspension on booking travel for refugees who are not in the restrictive categories. Each week that passes, security checks that are required for travel expire. Families who have been waiting years for loved ones to finally arrive are being dealt another blow to their hopes, and potentially significant delays to their cases.”

Marcia Brown explains in American Prospect:

“Unlike asylum, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), established in 1980, requires refugees to go through years of screening and background checks. The president determines the refugee cap and admissions goals each year. Trump’s presidential determination specified eligibility by category rather than by region, which is more typical. Only refugees who faced religious persecution, Iraqis who aided the U.S. military, and embassy-referred refugees were eligible for resettlement. This left out thousands of refugees who were already processed….

“With the new cap proposed in February, all that remains for a new presidential determination is the president’s signature.

“It takes on average three years to process, vet, and ready refugees for resettlement. According to Kekic, there’s a roughly six-week window in that three years where the paperwork is all up to date, as it changes daily. For those on the recently canceled flights, it may take months or years to update all the paperwork. ‘When you’re living in a refugee camp and you’re given a glimpse of what could be and then that’s taken away, it’s if not equivalent to their suffering in the first place, then close to it,’ Kekic said.”

Some 124 elected officials from 35 states joined refugee families and supporters in an April 6 letter to President Biden, urging action for refugees.