Why President Biden increased Refugee Cap to 62,500?

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Some reports have indicated that US President Joe Biden has increased the refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for the current fiscal year. It has been considered a major move after keeping the historically low Trump-era cap of 15,000. But, Biden also admitted in a statement on Monday that the administration will not reach that cap this year. Point to be noted that the Biden administration experienced intense backlash from liberals, immigration advocacy groups, and religious groups alike after announcing last month that they would keep the Trump-era level of 15,000 refugees for the time being, in spite of an earlier pledge to quadruple admissions of immigrants escaping war and violence.

On Monday, the White House issued a statement and said that the Biden administration is looking to increase the refugee admissions cap this month. President Biden issued a statement and said, “Today, I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year. This erases the historically low number set by the previous administration of 15,000, which did not reflect America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees. The new admissions cap will also reinforce efforts that are already underway to expand the United States’ capacity to admit refugees so that we can reach the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions that I intend to set for the coming fiscal year”.

However, President Biden also said in his statement that the United States will not reach 62,500 admissions and a cap is just that, a ceiling. He added in his statement and said, “The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year. We are working quickly to undo the damage of the last four years. It will take some time, but that work is already underway. We have reopened the program for new refugees. And by changing the regional allocations last month, we have already increased the number of refugees ready for departure to the United States”.