More than 715 refugees from around the world “who expected to start new lives in the United States have had their flights canceled in recent weeks because President Biden has postponed an overhaul of his predecessor’s sharp limits on new refugee admissions,” reports Miriam Jordan in the New York Times.
Jordan notes that in his first foreign policy speech last month, the president said he would lift the refugee ceiling to 125,000 in the 2021 fiscal year. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken notified Congress on Feb. 12 that the administration planned to allow up to 62,500 refugees to enter the country in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
“President Biden has talked the talk on refugees, but he refuses to walk the walk. Or, more specifically, sign some basic paperwork,” writes Catherine Rampell in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.
“If the refugee-ceiling paperwork delay is about avoiding more headlines alleging Biden’s softness on persecuted peoples, well, he already got those headlines — a month ago, when he announced the new policy. The public believes Biden has already lifted the refugee ceiling; only those desperate refugees who were recently unticketed know otherwise,” Rampell points out.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 