President biden issued an executive order on Thursday to increase refugee admissions and allow the United States to set a goal to provide safe haven to 125,000 people worldwide who flee violence, conflict and persecution during their first full fiscal year in office.
In order, Mr. Biden called for an expansion of the decades-old U.S. refugee program, which was destroyed by former President Trump, who often portrayed refugees as economic and security risks. After former President Obama set a ceiling of 110,000 before he stepped down, Trump reduced it each fiscal year, allocating 15,000 historically low slots in 2020.
During a speech at the State Department on Thursday, Biden said the goal is to set a cap of 125,000 people for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins in October. Biden also said that he instructed the State Department to consult with Congress “about making an initial payment on that commitment as soon as possible”, suggesting that he may propose to increase the limit by 15,000 for the current fiscal year.
“It will take time to rebuild what has been so damaged, but that is exactly what we are going to do,” said Biden during his comments, noting that the resettlement of refugees has historically relied on bipartisan support.
Last week, the United Nations refugee agency reported that countries around the world received less than 23,000 refugees in 2020, the lowest number in nearly two decades, in part due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic. The agency said that of the more than 20 million refugees it is helping in different countries, 1.44 million are in urgent need of resettlement.
The U.S. admitted fewer than 12,000 refugees in fiscal year 2020 and received nearly 1,000 between October and December, according to the latest State Department data.
The modern United States refugee program, established in 1980, is designed to offer protection to people abroad who have faced persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group, such as the LGBT community.
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In his order on Thursday, Biden said his government would prioritize the resettlement of women, children and others facing persecution because of their gender or sexual orientation. He also instructed an interagency review on ways to help people displaced by of Climate Change, including resettling them in the USA
Earlier this week, Democratic representatives Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren urged Biden to design a refugee policy that takes into account migration fueled by climate change, especially from Central America, a region devastated by two hurricanes last fall. The World Bank estimated that 1.4 million people in Mexico and Central America could migrate by 2050 because of the effects of climate change, including crop failure.
“We are very encouraged to see that the Biden government is in line with our recommendations and that they are starting the process of rebuilding this historically bipartisan program and returning the United States to its leadership position on the world stage,” wrote Nadler and Lofgren in their letter. .
Shortly after taking office in 2017, Mr. Trump decided to temporarily suspend the refugee program, arguing that more investigation procedures needed to be implemented. In addition to dramatically reducing admissions, Mr. Trump also issued an order allowing states and local jurisdictions to block the resettlement of refugees in their communities.
Through his order on Thursday, Biden repealed Trump’s guidelines.
Mr. Biden ordered the Department of Homeland Security to consider allowing refugees to be interviewed remotely and demanded that the Office of Personnel Management support the hiring of more refugee officers. The president also called for an expansion of private and community refugee sponsorship, a partnership the Canadian government relies on.
Trump’s changes have led nonprofit groups that help the government resettle refugees to close offices, lay off employees and lose federal funds.
Matthew Soerens, the church’s mobilization director at World Relief, one of these resettlement agencies, said his group closed eight offices during the Trump administration. He said that resettling 125,000 refugees during the remainder of fiscal year 2021 would probably be impossible given the current infrastructure.
“We are really looking forward to rebuilding and excited about the opportunity,” Soerens told CBS News. “But we are also doing this as quickly as possible with limited resources. It will not be something that will be rebuilt overnight.”
Resettlement agencies receive refugees when they arrive in the United States and help them with housing, finding jobs, enrolling their children in schools and other matters to facilitate their integration into American communities.
Meredith Owen, director of policy and defense for Church World Service, another resettlement agency, echoed Soerens’ comments.
“We are going to need the Biden government to actually take concrete steps to rebuild the exterior and domestic infrastructure in order to really be able to resettle the number of refugees we expect in the next four years,” Owen told CBS News, saying that refugee processing must also be accelerated.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service has closed or suspended services at 17 of its 48 resettlement offices in the past four years. While recognizing the logistical challenges of increasing refugee admissions, Krish Vignarajah, the group’s president, highlighted the symbolism of Biden’s commitment.
“Raising the roof will literally save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who flee violence and persecution because of the color of their skin, as they love it or love it,” Vignarajah told CBS News.