The Biden administration plans to announce that it will increase the number of refugees who can come to the United States.
This is a move toward building up refugee admissions after years of historic low arrivals under the Trump administration.
According to a CNN source, President Biden —who pledged to raise the cap during the campaign— is expected to announce his intention to increase the number of refugees allowed into the US during a visit to the State Department.
The Trump administration set a refugee cap of 15,000 for this fiscal year, the lowest since 1980. It is still unclear by how much the Biden administration will increase that cap.
The admissions cap must be approved by the president. Biden has pledged to set an annual refugee cap of 125,000. However, the plan is to wait until October when the next fiscal year begins.
The cap increase builds on a series of executive actions from Biden aimed at setting a new course for US immigration policy after Trump’s hardline approach.
On Tuesday, the Biden signed three executive orders that largely direct reviews of Trump-era policies, including the establishment of a task force designed to reunite families separated at the US-Mexico border.
“I’m not making new law, I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said. “This is about how America’s safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly, and humane legal immigration system.”
According to the source, Biden has been focusing on building up refugee admissions before taking office.