The Trump administration is considering lowering the number of refugees the United States accepts each year to below 50,000 people, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing unnamed current and former officials.
It would be the lowest number of refugees accepted by the U.S. since 1980, the New York Times noted.
President Donald Trump already set the maximum number of refugees accepted in the country to 50,000 with his executive order earlier this year, down from more than 100,000 under President Barack Obama. But some White House officials are pushing for him to lower that cap even further, according to the New York Times.
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, known for his hard-right views on immigration, has led this push, at one point proposing lowering the number of refugees accepted to 15,000, per the Times. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are also pushing to lower the cap, proposing it be set at 40,000 refugees, the New York Times reported. Officials at the National Security Council, State Department, and Defense Department have opposed a significant drop in the number of refugees accepted, per the Times.