Democrats and liberal organizations lambasted President Joe Biden after the White House said he would not immediately raise the number of refugees admitted this year from the historic low set by the Trump administration.
Leading liberal lawmakers said Biden’s decision Friday to keep refugee admissions below 15,000 in 2021 was a victory for the Trump administration, whose policies deterred immigration, even those who do so legally. Just 2,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States this year. The White House clarified later Friday that Biden would lift the cap in May, but not before liberals directed harsh criticism at the White House.
Biden has dragged his feet on amending that number in the three months since he took office as more than 272,000 migrants have come across the southern border in February and March alone. Many are families and children seeking asylum, which is different than refugees who request admission to the country while still outside the U.S.
BIDEN ACCELERATES REFUGEE PROCESS WHILE STALLING ON PROMISED ADMISSION CAP HIKE
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said Biden’s decision was “unacceptable.”
“These refugees can wait years for their chance and go through extensive vetting. Thirty-five thousand are ready. Facing the greatest refugee crisis in our time there is no reason to limit the number to 15,000. Say it ain’t so, President Joe,” Durbin said in a statement.
In the House, lawmakers took to Twitter to react to the news, including members from the House Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
“President Biden promised to restore our humanity. With this, he’s broken that promise. We can’t turn our back on refugees around the world. The President needs to raise the cap now,” Jayapal wrote in a post to Twitter.
“Completely and utterly unacceptable. Biden promised to welcome immigrants, and people voted for him based on that promise,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Upholding the xenophobic and racist policies of the Trump admin, incl the historically low + plummeted refugee cap, is flat out wrong. Keep your promise.”
Completely and utterly unacceptable. Biden promised to welcome immigrants, and people voted for him based on that promise.
Upholding the xenophobic and racist policies of the Trump admin, incl the historically low + plummeted refugee cap, is flat out wrong.
Keep your promise. https://t.co/A82xYf1XpR
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 16, 2021
“There are simply no excuses for today’s disgraceful decision. It goes directly against our values and risks the lives of little boys and girls huddled in refugee camps around the world. I know, because I was one,” Omar wrote on Twitter.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said she saw no justification for the move and that it undid what the Biden administration had agreed to in a discussion in February.
Rep. William Pascrell of New Jersey has advocated for higher refugee admission levels in the past and panned the decision.
“In 1989, Ronald Reagan of all people warned that if we ever closed our golden door, American leadership in the world would be lost. He was right. Failure to embrace the neediest, most destitute souls does not befit this country of immigrants. We must reopen the door to refugees,” Pascrell said in a statement.
“This is a bad decision. Trump gutted our refugee program, a cornerstone of our global leadership and values. His polices can’t be the default we carry on — especially for the sake of ‘optics,'” wrote former Obama-era Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
Organizations that work with and advocate for immigrants also expressed frustration over how Biden walked back his previous statements.
Joanne Lin, Amnesty International’s national director of advocacy and government relations, compared Biden’s lack of action to “turning his back on tens of thousands of refugees around the world who have been approved to come to the United States.”
“President Biden had the opportunity to fulfill his campaign pledge and to deliver on his promises to protect the rights of and well-being of refugees, to place human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy, and to restore U.S. global leadership,” Lin said in a statement. “He squandered that opportunity today.”
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Refugees International President Eric Schwartz called the move “deeply disappointing” and said it makes both the Trump and Biden administrations “jointly responsible for the lowest ceiling since the start of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program some four decades ago.”
