First Three Months of Donald Trump's Administration See Significant Drop in Refugees in US
The first three months of Donald Trump's administration saw a significant decrease in the total number of refugees admitted to the United States. On Friday, the U.S. government released new statistics showing that the number of refugees allowed to enter the country during Trump's administration fell from 25,000 to 13,000.
During the last three months of Barack Obama's presidency, the number of refugees who were able to enter the U.S. and reside in the country was more than 25,000. However, the first three months of Trump's administration saw that this number was slashed by almost half. The significant drop is seen to indicate the new president's cynicism when it comes to the matter of immigration.
Released by the Department of Homeland Security, the statistics also reflected that the most popular countries of origin of these refugees have remained unchanged. Just like during Obama's term, these countries include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Myanmar.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
During his term, Obama set the ceiling of refugee arrivals in the U.S. to 110,000. However, Trump cut this down to 50,000 after assuming the presidency. According to reports, the current refugee number could have been even smaller, had Trump's new executive order banning refugees from Muslim countries not been blocked by the federal courts.
When he assumed his position, Trump issued an executive order preventing refugees from Muslim-majority nations like Syria and Somalia from entering the U.S. However, this order was blocked by the federal courts and hence did not take effect.
For this fiscal year, the congress has allocated a budget for only 75,000 refugees. That means the U.S. can accommodate up to 900 refugees only every week. Prior to Trump's administration, Obama took a different route when he increased the allowable number of refugees by up to 86 percent to accommodate the millions of refugees worldwide.
