Joe Biden, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, on World Refugee Day (June 20) said that as President he would increase the number of refugees the U.S. welcomes into the country, setting an annual global refugee target of 125,000 — up from a ceiling of 18,000 under President Trump — “and will seek to further raise it over time commensurate with our responsibility, our values, and the unprecedented global need.”
Biden outlined his plans in a statement posted on Medium.
Biden said that he will support efforts to work with Congress in a bipartisan fashion “to protect our refugee policy from drastic and arbitrary reductions we have seen during the Trump Administration and establish a minimum admissions number of at least 95,000 refugees annually.”
He will also pursue policies that increase opportunities for faith and local communities to sponsor refugee resettlement. “I will make more channels, such as higher education visas, available to those seeking safety. I will repeal the Muslim ban — and other discriminatory bans based on ethnicity and nationality — and restore asylum laws, including ending the horrific practice of separating families at our border,” he wrote.
Jill Biden pens Op-Ed on refugees
Meanwhile, Jill Biden noted in a June 22 Op-Ed that as Second Lady, and in her work after as well, she has traveled to refugee camps around the world.
“From Kenya to Jordan to Greece to Ethiopia to the Matamoros Tent Camp on the U.S. border, I have seen the truth of Warsan Shire’s poetry, that ‘no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark,'” Biden wrote.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 