Joe Biden is expected to announce an increase in the number of refugees admitted to the U.S.

Joe Biden is expected to announce an increase in the number of refugees admitted to the U.S.

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President Joe Biden, who promised to raise the limit during the campaign, is expected to announce his intention to increase the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. during a visit to the State Department, according to a source. The Trump administration has set a refugee ceiling of 15,000 for this fiscal year, the lowest since 1980. It is unclear how much the Biden government will increase that ceiling.

The refugee cap must be approved by the president. Biden has pledged to set an annual admission limit of 125,000, although the plan is to wait until October, when the next fiscal year begins, to set that limit, according to one of the sources.

The increase in the refugee limit is based on a series of executive actions by Biden aimed at setting a new course for U.S. immigration policy, following the Trump administration’s hard line approach.

On Tuesday, the president signed three executive orders that largely direct revisions of Trump-era policies, including the establishment of a task force to bring together separate families on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I am not making a new law, I am eliminating bad policies,” said Biden at the White House, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris. “It’s about how the United States gets safer, stronger and more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly and humane legal immigration system.”

Before taking office, increasing refugee admissions was a focus between Biden’s transition team and the Department of Homeland Security, which plays a role in the process, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Each year, the government sets a limit on how many refugees can be admitted to the United States. Historically, the number of admissions has fluctuated according to world events, although it is generally high.

From the fiscal years 1990 to 1995, for example, many refugees who arrived in the United States were from the former Soviet Union, according to the Pew Research Center.

And in the last years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the government raised the refugee ceiling from 85,000 in fiscal 2016 to 110,000 in fiscal 2017 amid the Syrian crisis.

This story was updated with additional information Wednesday.

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