Here (below) are the key points (I’ll have more to say in the morning!).
***Update*** More on the President’s Determination, here.
LOL! And, by morning we should be hearing the wailing coming from the refugee industry mouthpieces!
By the way, all nine federal refugee contractors work to politically undermine President Trump on a daily basis. Indeed they hate him just as much for 18,000 as they would if he said zero (as was being considered at one point), so he might as well have gone with zero!
Hot off the presses at the Washington Times this evening:
Trump to cut refugees to 18,000, give localities veto over resettlement
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed cutting the number of refugees admitted next year to 18,000, and called for a major revamp of the program to align it with U.S. interests, including giving localities a say in whether they can accommodate the new arrivals.
The new plan will also reduce the role of the U.N. in picking America’s refugees, and instead give priority to religious minorities and Iraqis who have assisted the U.S. government, and to refugees the U.S has agreed to resettle on behalf of Australia.
Officials submitted the proposal to Congress on Thursday, kicking off a consultation period that will conclude with President Trump making a final determination next month.
But based on past consultations, the 18,000 number is likely to hold firm.
It would be the lowest cap since the modern refugee system was created in 1980, and marks a 12,000 drop from the fiscal year 2019 cap, and a major reduction from the 110,000 refugee target the Obama administration tried to set for 2017.
[….]
As striking as the smaller refugee cap is, officials said the changes to the system are just as important.
Chief among those is an executive order Mr. Trump will soon issue giving states and localities the chance to consent before refugees are sent to their jurisdictions.
Don’t get overly excited, this isn’t the kind of real reform I’ve been looking for! It is a start, but it should have been made two years ago. It is now too late in his term for it to produce any lasting change.
More tomorrow…..
