Lawmakers unhappy after Pompeo lowers cap on new refugees
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers of both parties are criticizing the Trump administration’s decision to lower the annual refugee cap to 30,000 people for fiscal 2019 — a sharp decrease from the 45,000 cap set for fiscal 2018, and also a historic low.
“At a time when we should be defending our values and ideals as Americans and working to alleviate the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, it is truly repugnant to see the Trump administration double down on its efforts to reject our foundational values and humanitarian duty of providing those escaping persecution the opportunity to seek protection and safe haven,” Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Monday.
His fellow New Jersey Democrat, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., who has long opposed the Trump administration’s efforts to lower the refugee cap, said the administration continues “to show contempt for those most in need.”
“At every turn, Trump has erected hurdles to clog the flow of immigrant resettlement in the United States,” Pascrell added. “Before we know it, Trump will set the number close to zero. Congress must demand this administration reverse course. The need is out there. The world is watching.”
New Jersey has seen a rapid influx of refugees from Syria escaping the civil war in that country in recent years; Paterson, in Pascrell’s district, has been among the welcoming destinations.
The 30,000 refugee cap is the lowest the U.S. has set since its creation in 1980, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush generally set the cap at 70,000 or 80,000 per year. In the 1980s, it averaged 116,000 per year; in the 1990s, 110,000 per year; and in the aughts, 75,000 per year.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement on Monday at the State Department, saying that “this year’s proposed refugee ceiling must be considered in the context of the many other forms of protection and assistance offered by the United States.”