Faith groups decry Trump plans for refugee cap
Refugee advocates are calling to halt plans to lower the limit on the number of refugees allowed into the U.S.
SAN DIEGO >> Refugee advocates, including faithbased groups that President Donald Trump is courting in his re- election bid, called on Congress Thursday to halt his administration’s plans to slash the limit on refugees allowed into the U. S. to a record low, saying it goes against America’s values.
In a notice sent to Congress late Wednesday, just 34 minutes before a statutory deadline to do so, the government unveiled its proposal to allow 15,000 refugees into the country in the fiscal year that started Thursday.
The number is 3,000 less than the historically low ceiling of 18,000 that Trump set for the fiscal year that ended Wednesday.
Scott Arbeiter, president of World Relief, a global Christian aid agency, said Trump has reneged on his promise to protect persecuted Christians in the world.
“Instead, we’ve seen the resettlement of refugees from countries known for persecution drop about 90% in some cases over the last four years,” Arbeiter said in a statement. “This is unconscionable.”
T he administration’s plan wa s relea sed as Trump vilified refugees as an unwanted burden for the country at a campaign
rally in Duluth, Minnesota. He accused his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, of wanting to flood the state with foreigners.
“Biden will turn Minne
sota into a refugee camp, and he said that — overwhelming public resources, overcrowding schools and inundating hospitals. You know that. It’s already
there. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to your state,” Trump told supporters.
He then blasted Rep. Ilhan Omar, who arrived to the United States as a Somali refugee and now represents Minneapolis in Congress, saying: “How the hell did Minnesota elect her? What the hell is wrong with you people, right?”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, denounced the drop in refugee admissions as part of “the ongoing Trump administration effort to maintain systemic antiBlack racism and white supremacy.”