One more post on numbers and the rumored executive order on refugees, and then I am moving on to a lot of other refugee news that has gone unreported for days as we watch and wait for President Trump’s delayed order on the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
The rumor (and who leaked the draft executive order anyway?) is that Donald Trump will cap the refugee admissions for FY2017 at 50,000. Obama had proposed 110,000 (and the refugee resettlement contractors have been busy finding new sites for their placement).
As of today we are at 32,094 (see previous post).
(Trump will be setting the numbers for FY2018 in September of this year.)
But this is what you need to know: 50,000 doesn’t represent a shocking reduction when you look at the history of resettlement since 2001. (These numbers, below, came from this chart, Wrapsnet, and from ORR annual reports to Congress).
Here are the numbers we admitted through the Bush and Obama Administrations (Bush had 4 years under 50,000!). Remember the resettlement agencies are paid by the head, so it is to their financial benefit to see high numbers:
2001: 87,259 (this year’s number would have been proposed by Clinton in the fall of 2000)
2002: 45,896
2003: 39,554
2004: 79,158
2005: 69,006
2006: 41,223
2007: 48,282
2008: 60,191
2009: 74,654
2010: 73,311
2011: 56,424
2012: 58,238
2013: 69,926
2014: 69,987
2015: 69,993
2016: 84,994
Again, 50,000 might look like a great reduction when compared to Obama’s 110,000 proposed number, but it isn’t that significant a reduction. I bet the media will report this as Trump cutting the refugee numbers in half!
See our Trump Watch! category for all the news about the delayed executive order.