(HorizonPost.com) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees webpage defines a refugee as “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.” The State Department just announced President Joe Biden’s intentions to increase the number of refugees allowed to resettle to the United States for the second time in his short tenure in office.
Soon after taking office, Biden said he would keep the number of refugees at 15,000 per year as established under former President Donald Trump. However, backlash from the Progressive Liberals in the Democratic Party forced him to change it to 62,500. For fiscal year (FY) 2022, he’s doubled that proposed number to 125,000. This figure includes an allotment of 35,000 individuals from “Near East and South Asia,” including Afghans.
President Biden is raising the U.S. refugee admissions cap to 125,000 from 62,500, a person familiar with the matter said, in line with his goal from the 2020 campaign https://t.co/MHSMQX7hXA
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 20, 2021
Still, it’s unclear how that number can be considered realistic after the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan. In a press conference on September 3, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said they expect more than 50,000 Afghan nationals to settle in America.
Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI) offered a perspective on how a flood of refugees could affect the vetting process. In an interview with The Washington Times, he claims to have visited Fort McCoy in Wisconsin and says none of the 2,000 Afghan nationals sent there were Special Immigration Visa (SIV) holders, yet they were permitted to leave the base at will with two-year passes. To put that in perspective, it can take up to two years for them to get SIVs.
Copyright 2021, HorizonPost.com
