Washington, DC — Upon taking office, President Biden declared his intention to fully rebuild and restore the US refugee resettlement program. After rescinding Trump’s discriminatory admissions categories, President Biden has increased this year’s refugee admissions goal to 62,500 for the remainder of the fiscal year. Despite the undue delay, this news illustrates a good-faith effort on behalf of the Biden administration to meaningfully address the damage done by Trump, and sets the stage to effectively rebuild the refugee resettlement program.
John Slocum, Interim Executive Director for RCUSA, shared “We are grateful to see the administration follow through in raising the refugee admissions goal. This is a real step forward, as is the President’s lifting of his predecessor’s discriminatory geographic restrictions, and his promise to set a FY22 admissions goal of 125,000. However, the months-long delay in raising the cap has caused real harm to refugees around the world who were scheduled for resettlement here in the US. We hope that the administration will prioritize resettling those 715 refugees whose flights were cancelled in March, and that the administration will do everything in its ability to resettle as many refugees this year as possible. Restoring and strengthening the refugee program means ensuring that we swiftly rebuild the program with an eye toward meeting the coming year’s goal. Our communities and the network of hundreds of resettlement offices across the country are ready to rebuild and welcome.”
RCUSA is a diverse coalition advocating for just and humane laws and policies, and the promotion of dialogue and communication among government, civil society, and those who need protection and welcome. Individual RCUSA members do not all address all refugee-related issues, nor do all individual members approach common refugee-related issues identically.
Media Contact: Sarah Seniuk, sseniuk@rcusa.org
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