Apparently Donald Trump isn’t finished reviewing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and yesterday set forth in a new Executive Order plans to continue to study the many concerns surrounding the USRAP for another 180 days.
That, however, hasn’t stopped the flow of refugees in to the country in the first 24 days of this fiscal year. The number, as of this morning, is 1,236 entries since October 1. (See the graph below showing monthly admissions over the last ten years.
Here are a couple of critical sections of the new EO (read all of it here). Hat tip Richard at Blue Ridge Forum.
(ii) Within 90 days of the date of this order and annually thereafter, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall determine, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, whether any actions taken to address the risks to the security and welfare of the United States presented by permitting any category of refugees to enter this country should be modified or terminated, and, if so, what those modifications or terminations should be. If the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, determines, at any time, that any actions taken pursuant to section 3(a)(i) should be modified or terminated, the Secretary of Homeland Security may modify or terminate those actions accordingly. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State shall administer the USRAP consistent with the determinations made under this subsection, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
And, then this section is especially interesting. The Justice Department is required to do a study of the effect of refugee resettlement including its effect on the “general welfare of the United States.”
(b) Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, and in cooperation with the heads of other executive departments and agencies as he deems appropriate, provide a report to the President on the effect of refugee resettlement in the United States on the national security, public safety, and general welfare of the United States. The report shall include any recommendations the Attorney General deems necessary to advance those interests.
We will be watching for that in April!
But, all the more reason you all have to make news where you live so that we can maybe, just maybe, get the attention of the Attorney General! (See St. Cloud!)
Here from Wrapsnet is a month by month accounting of refugee admissions going back to FY2007. Again, as of today, we have admitted 1,236 refugees in the first 24 days of October.
To reach anywhere near Trump’s FY18 ceiling of 45,000, we would have to admit refugees at a rate of over 3,500 a month. Each refugee is, as you know, a paying client for one of the nine federal refugee contractors.***
This post is filed in my Refugee statistics and Where to find information categories.
*** For new readers, these are the nine federal refugee contractors placing refugees into towns and cities in most of your states.
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)