President Donald Trump’s administration has enacted new policies that are purposely stalling the FBI’s process of vetting refugees for admission to the United States, NBC News reported Friday.
According to former White House officials who spoke to NBC, the administration is overburdening the FBI with a variety of new procedures that have slowed down the admissions process for refugees. An administration official told NBC that the new procedures require the FBI to check additional databases to “weed out any potential terrorists,” in NBC’s words.
The administration has already intentionally halved the number of refugees its allowing into the United States in 2018, an effort largely led by White House aide Stephen Miller. The U.S. admitted 45,000 last year and is set to approve just 20,000 to 21,000 this year.
While the FBI told NBC that it is taking the “necessary time to thoroughly review” all applicants, former administration officials told NBC that the bureau is only able to vet a “handful of cases” a day.
Read NBC’s full story here.
