Update September 23rd: 30,000 may not be final number, here.

Update September 19th:  One more reason the Trump Administration could have gone with a ZERO cap this year—320,000 migrants already in US looking to get refugee status, here.

Update September 18th: See why I think a cap of 30,000 was a bad decision, here.

So, I guess Church World Service can get off its “pins and needles!”

 

 

It was only this morning that we reported that a Church World Service employee announced that there would be no CEILING (aka CAP) announced until December.  They sure seem to have gotten their facts wrong, or did they?

There will be much wailing from the usual contractor gang (they wanted the number to be 75,000!), but remember readers that we are under 30,000 this year—we should come in at less than 25,000. (Update: as of today we have admitted 20,919 refugees with only 2 weeks to go in the fiscal year.)

Here is the brief news posted a little over an hour ago at Politico:

Trump administration intends to slash refugee cap

The Trump administration will admit no more than 30,000 refugees to the U.S. in the coming year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, down from the current cap of 45,000.

Pompeo announced the lowered ceiling during a press conference Monday at the Department of State headquarters in Foggy Bottom.

Pompeo said the 30,000 cap “must be considered in the context of the many other forms of protection and assistance offered by the United States” and should not be “sole barometer” to measure the country’s humanitarian efforts.

The hawkish turn demonstrates President Donald Trump’s willingness to push hard-line immigration policies in the run-up to the November midterm elections ….

When Trump took office, the refugee cap stood at 110,000. He lowered that to 50,000, and subsequently to 45,000.

It is my opinion that the program won’t be reformed as it should be until the number is ZERO with the understanding that Congress and the Administration must reform the entire program during a moratorium.

Without real reform, as the Lancaster, PA Church World Service employee said: they will just wait out this president and claim they need huge numbers in 2021 or 2025 to make up for Trump’s lost years.

Will the Administration and Congress follow the law in the next few weeks?

The Refugee Act of 1980 requires the US State Department, in conjunction with the President, to present a detailed Report to Congress explaining how many refugees they would like to admit and from where they will come.

The report should arrive in Congress weeks before the end of the fiscal year (September 30th) and BEFORE refugees begin arriving in the new year.  The House and Senate Judiciary Committees are supposed to hold PUBLIC hearings and “consult” with the Administration on that report.

Where is the report? Has it been made public? How can they go forward with resettlement on October first with no guide as to which refugees will get priority?

After consultation with Congress about The Report, the President then is supposed to make his final determination.

Of course they haven’t been following the law for years, so it remains to be seen if they will this year or not.

We will be waiting with great anticipation to see if the first of the new batch of 30,000 begins arriving on October first (2 weeks from today!).