This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
The Trump administration will cut the number of refugees that can be admitted in fiscal year 2021 down to 15,000, it announced Thursday. That’s the lowest number of admissions since the Refugee Act of 1980 created the cap. The U.S.’s cap was set at 18,000 in the 2020 fiscal year that ended on Wednesday, though it didn’t accept nearly that many refugees that year. Former President Barack Obama set the cap at 110,000 in his final year in office. The news of the cut came as Trump was delivering a racist and anti-immigrant tirade in Minnesota, including targeted attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the U.S. as a refugee. Citing security concerns, Trump also proposed not admitting refugees from Syria, Somalia and Yemen with an exception for “those who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of religion,” which is likely targeting Christian refugees. The New York Times, NBC New York
In other local immigration news…
Trump Considers Hanging Billboards of Immigration Violators
The Trump administration is considering putting up billboards of immigration violators in a bid to promote the president’s “law and order” message in the buildup to the election. ICE would erect the billboards in at least one city to highlight immigrants who have committed crimes and were released by local authorities. CNN
SCOTUS to Expedite Census Count Decision
The Supreme Court said it would move quickly to consider an appeal of the Trump administration’s bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census calculations used to apportion congressional seats. The New York Times
First Lady Expresses Apathy to Family Separation
First Lady Melania Trump was caught in a recording expressing frustration with how she was viewed over family separation at the border. “They said, ‘Oh, what about the children that were separated?’ Give me a fucking break. Where were they saying anything when Obama did that?” Trump said. It was allegedly a recording between her and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend who wrote the book “Melania and Me” about her relationship with the first lady. In the recording, Trump admits the policy was unfortunate but that the kids were “nicely” taken care of. HuffPost
