Report: Trump Admin Divided as Several Officials Suggest Cutting Refugee Admissions to Zero in 2020
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering cutting refugee admissions into the United States to zero next year, according to a new report.
Some key Trump security officials made the suggestion during a meeting on refugee admissions last week, three anonymous people familiar with the plan told Politico.
Homeland Security Department officials at the meeting suggested the number of refugees allowed in the U.S. should be between 3,000 to 10,000.
About 20 members from a variety of departments — including the State Department, Homeland Security, Justice Department, Department of Defense and the National Security Council — were present at the meeting held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
A source told Politico that a member of the State Department, Andrew Veprek, along with John Zadrozny, a USCIS official, argued, “the refugee cap should be low because of ongoing security concerns and the ability of the U.S. to offer humanitarian protections through the asylum process.”
Jen Smyers, a director with resettlement agency Church World Service, said cutting the number of refugees could potentially hurt the resettlement process in the future.
Due to the amount of time it takes to process the request by the refugee, critics of the plan argue that dropping the number to zero could backlog the system for years.
“In the long-term, it would mean that the capacity and the ability of the United States to resettle refugees would be completely decimated,” Smyers said.
The potential drop in the number of admitted refugees is also troubling for Department of Defense officials who want to allow Iraqi refugees who have helped the United States in Iraq into the country, Politico reported.
In a letter to White House national security adviser John Bolton last year, former Defense Secretary James Mattis advocated for the admission of the Iraqi refugees.
“Over the last 17 years of war, numerous Iraqi nationals have risked their own lives and their families’ lives by aligning with our diplomats and warfighters providing essential mission support. We owe them support for their commitment,” he wrote.
Mattis added that shunning the Iraqi refugees could hurt U.S. future endeavors in Iraq.
“A failure to honor our commitments to those who have supported the U.S. in combat would undermine our diplomatic efforts abroad to protect the Homeland and support key aspects of the President’s national security strategy by making it more difficult to sustain the support of partners elsewhere,” he wrote.
The Trump administration has until September to decide how many refugees will be allowed into the U.S. and from where they will be coming.
According to Politico’s sources, the different agencies have until Aug. 1 to submit their recommendations.
Based on the State Department’s recommendation last year, the Trump administration cut the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. from 45,000 to 30,000.
The Western Journal has reached out to the State Department, Homeland Security, Justice Department and Department of Defense for comment but has yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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