(RNS) — The Trump administration’s announcement that it would once again slash refugee admissions to the United States to unprecedented lows was met with outcry by refugee resettlement groups — many of which are faith-based.
The State Department announced Thursday (Sept. 26) that President Trump has set the number of refugees the U.S. will accept over the next year at 18,000.
That’s the lowest number of admissions a president has set since the refugee resettlement program started in the 1980s. And it comes as the country expects to receive more than 368,000 new refugee and asylum claims in its next fiscal year, which starts in October, according to the State Department.
The Rev. John L. McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, one of the nine agencies authorized to resettle refugees in the U.S., called the president’s declaration “nothing short of a refugee ban.”
“With one final blow, the Trump administration has snuffed out Lady Liberty’s torch and ended our nation’s legacy of compassion and welcome. The darkness of this day will extend for years, if not decades, to come,” McCullough said in a written statement.
This past year, Trump set the refugee ceiling at 30,000 people. His first year in office, it was 45,000.
Both also were historic lows at the time, and the total number of refugees admitted did not reach those ceilings.
According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. had admitted 28,100 refugees by the end of August 2019 and 22,500 during the previous fiscal year.
