President Trump’s “rollicking abuse of refugees and the answering jeers of his fans are a frank confession of moral rottenness,” writes George Packer in a new column for the Atlantic magazine. “His contempt for people who have given up everything to become Americans fully displays his fundamental unworthiness as a president and a human being,” Packer says of Trump.
Under Trump, notes Packer, the U.S. refugee program has almost collapsed. “Last year, the administration set a ceiling of just 18,000 refugees. It actually admitted 10,000. Several weeks ago, the administration announced that the ceiling for fiscal year 2021 will go down to 15,000.”
Becca Heller, the executive director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, told Packer, “I think if Trump is reelected, it’s the end of the U.S. refugee program.”
In stark contrast to Trump’s hostility to refugees, Joe Biden has pledged to raise the ceiling of refugees admitted to the U.S. to 125,000 in his first year as president.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 