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Trump Cuts Refugee Cap Again

America will only accept 15,000 refugees in 2021, the lowest number in its history and down from 18,000 in the past year

Mazin Sidahmed

Oct 02, 2020

A naturalization ceremony in Philadelphia in June, 2019. A furlough of USCIS employees could bring naturalizations to a halt. Credit: Shutterstock

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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

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Mazin Sidahmed

Mazin Sidahmed is the co-executive director of Documented. He previously worked for the Guardian US in New York. He started his career writing for The Daily Star in Beirut and he also contributed to Politico New York.

@mazsidahmed

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