As we have said repeatedly, and most recently here, the Hawaiian judge did not have the power to slow the flow of refugees entering the US, nor did he have any power to set the ceiling. That said, a week after the 120-day slowdown was to go in to effect, the numbers entering the US picked up dramatically since we reported 38,111 as of Wednesday (for FY17).
Today data at Wrapsnet indicates that another 342 refugees arrived in the US in the last 48 hours. We are now at 38,453!
If the US Department of State had been preparing for a 120-day pause to begin on March 16th, how is it that this large number of refugees was ready to board planes? Is there anyone in charge (other than the career people) at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration? Are they still calling all the shots? Or, is it possible that the White House isn’t willing to fight on this portion of the EO (assuming we wouldn’t notice)?
The top five nationalities among the 342 newly arrived are as follows:
Syria (55 and 51 of those were Muslims)
Somalia (50 and all are Muslims)
Burma (44 and a surprisingly high number of those—17—are Muslims)
Iraq (41 and 32 are Muslims)
Ukraine (32 and zero Muslims)
The top five states receiving Syrians over the last two days are: Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho and Ohio.
The top five states receiving Somalis since Wednesday are: Massachusetts, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, and New York.
This post is filed in our Trump Watch! category as well as ‘refugee statistics’ and ‘where to find information.’