SAN DIEGO - President Joe Biden kept the nation's cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the 2023 budget year despite the pressure from advocates to raise it even higher to meet the need after falling far short of that target this year.
Refugees advocates have been pushing for the Biden administration to do more to restore the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The more than four-decade old program suffered deep cuts under the Trump administration, which slashed admissions to a record low of 15,000.
Biden raised the cap to four times that amount, but so far fewer than 20,000 refugees have been admitted this budget year, which ends Sept. 30.
The number excludes the 180,000 Ukrainians and Afghans who came to the United States via a legal process called humanitarian parole that got them into the country faster than the traditional refugee program, which only allows for stays of up to two years.
Refugees are given a path to permanent residency. The number of people they resettle in a given year is determined by the president each year, and federal funding for resettlement agencies is based on the number of people they resettle in a given year.
Biden stated in his presidential determination that the 125,000 target is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest. The average has been 95,000 under both the Republican and Democratic administrations.
Biden earmarked 5,000 more slots for people from Europe and Central Asia for the 2023 budget year, making room for those fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The largest number of slots -- 40,000 -- was set aside for refugees from Africa, followed by 35,000 from South Asia and 15,000 from East Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Biden has struggled to restore the U.S. The Refugee Program slowed the process and resulted in a huge backlog despite raising the numbers and removing bureaucratic barriers put in place by his predecessor.
The head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Krish O Mara Vignarajah, said that the Biden administration must act now to improve the refugee program, as the UN reported a record 100 million people being displaced from their homes.
She said that it must ramp up and streamline overseas processing for refugee applications if the lifesaving program is to stay relevant amid an unprecedented global displacement crisis.