- After four years of cuts from former President Trump, President Joe Biden will issue an executive order raising the refugee ceiling, allowing the US to accept more global refugees. [Reuters / Steve Holland and Ted Hesson]
- The Trump administration set a historically low cap of 15,000 refugees for this year. On the campaign trail, Biden pledged to raise it to 125,000 while campaigning, but plans to wait until the new fiscal year begins in October. He has not specified how many refugees he plans to accept. [CNN / Priscilla Alvarez and Kevin Liptak]
- Trump’s actions will take time to undo. In order to increase the refugee ceiling, Biden will need to reopen the more than one-third of offices Trump closed and workers he let go of. [The Associated Press / Matthew Lee and Julie Watson]
- Biden’s plan was praised by the UN’s refugee agency. Refugee advocacy groups praised the move, but called for urgency in repairing the damage Trump had done. [The Independent / Mayank Aggarwal]
- Experts say the global refugee situation is worsening, with the UN estimating there are 26.3 million in the world. Further complicating matters, some 40,000 refugees have already been screened but are stuck in limbo due to Trump’s gutting of the relevant agencies. [The New York Times / Lara Jakes, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Maggie Haberman and Michael D. Shear]
- The backlog created by Trump means Biden is unlikely to hit his target of 125,000 refugees, even though his plan is to prorate the number between two fiscal years. [The Associated Press]
- Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also said the US may join the United Kingdom in adding people fleeing Hong Kong to the list of refugees the country should accept. [The New York Times]
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