Donald Trump has been elected president Vows to stop refugees from coming to US in his second term – a commitment that would mainly lie within his powers as president.
Trump says he plans to “Suspend refugee admissions, stop resettlement, and keep terrorists out of our countryFirst day back at office. Refugee admissions rules established by Congress include: 1980 Refugee ActBut also through direct legislation after World War II. Therefore, any attempt to formally end the refugee program would require an act of Congress. However, the president has a lot of authority over refugee admissions — and Trump exercised that authority during his first term.
It is up to the president to decide how many refugees will be allowed into the United States in a given year Trump significantly lowers refugee admissions cap In his first term. Presidents can too admission breakAs did President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11.
“Each president has used their powers to expand or contract as circumstances may have suited,” Eric Welsh of Reeves Immigration Law Group told Vox. “It’s something that’s very sensitive to its effects.”
Given how significantly Trump eroded the US refugee program during his first term, it is not unreasonable to fear that he will do even more damage this time around. While there are technically legal limits to how much Trump can do to repeal the refugee program, the administration can practically do a lot to gut it.
How does the US refugee system work?
Refugees are migrants who seek to settle in a safe country, in this case the United States, to escape threats and extreme conditions in their home countries.
To be classified as a refugee, immigrants must go through a verification process while outside the United States. Potential refugees are usually screened first by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and then by the US government. After they pass the verification process, they then receive a visa to come to the United States, where they are assisted with basics such as finding housing, enrolling children in school, and signing up for government benefits. US Refugee Admissions Program.
Refugees can work while in the United States and apply for U.S. citizenship while they have legal status in the United States.
What did Trump do in his first term?
Trump halted refugee admissions for three months after first taking office in 2017.
“The justification was to determine if [the US refugee program] It was safe and secure because of the alleged security risks,” Welsh said. Trump Indefinitely Bans Syrians From Refugee Resettlement Program; Syrians were not accepted again until 2018.
“And then he took it a step further with the Muslim ban, specifically banning it [refugee] Applicants from certain countries” — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, Welsh said. After more than a year of litigation, the Supreme Court allowed a version of that ban to stand.
Trump also drastically reduced the overall number of refugees allowed into the United States during his first term. For example, Trump only set a ceiling 15,000 refugees by 2021; Under Biden, that number has risen to 125,000 For this past year.
What else can Trump do on the refugee program in his second term?
Given his first-term moves to limit refugees, refugee advocates worry that Trump will go even further this next term — and that he could do more to increase pressure on the refugee program.
First, he has promised to freeze the program as in his first term, but it is unclear how long the process will be paused or what the justification will be. He could institute something similar to the 2017 travel ban, Welsh said.
“The worry is, this time – four years to think about it – Trump will try and do it [a travel ban] Again and do it better, because he has a lot of authority in this arena,” Welsh told Vox.
Of course, Trump could also reduce the cap on how many refugees are allowed into the US on an annual basis, as he did in his first term.
Chris Opila, a staff attorney at the American Immigration Council, told Vox there are administrative ways Trump and his administration could vacate the program.
“The Trump administration could reallocate refugee officers to different tasks, such as asylum within the United States, or credible fear operations at the border and diversion of judicial resources,” Opila said.
Under the previous Trump administration, “Inc [federal] Rehabilitation agencies, due to some changes they have closed some of their offices. And I think that some of what we can anticipate will be similar in terms of measures that slow down processing and limit the number of people who can come in,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an attorney at the Migration Policy Institute, told Vox.
Ultimately, Welsh said, Trump is unpredictable, and it’s impossible to say what he will or won’t do in January. But if his first term is any indication, refugees hoping to come to the United States may face a growing number of obstacles to a safe future.
