President Joe Biden has yet to make good on his promise in February to raise the country’s refugee acceptance cap, which currently sits at a historic low of 15,000 after ex-President Donald Trump gutted the program.
The reason for Biden’s delay? He’s worried about political optics, according to CNN.
Republicans and right-wing media have been hammering on the President’s immigration policies, working to gin up fear over what they call “Biden’s border crisis” amid a large influx of arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, the country’s refugee program is unrelated to the immigration process at the border.
The International Rescue Committee reports that only 2,050 refugees have been admitted this fiscal year, which is already halfway over, even though the Biden administration had promised to raise the limit to 62,500 this fiscal year.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of refugees who were already approved are unable to resettle in the U.S. and more than 700 flights have been cancelled, according to the report.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during her daily press briefing on Thursday that Biden “remains committed” to increasing the cap but declined to give a timeline.
Multiple Senate and House Democrats have been airing frustrations with Biden’s delay in recent days.
“The refugee issue is pretty bleak right now,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) told CNN. “We need realistic numbers. These are people who come to our country in an orderly way.”
“I’m definitely concerned,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told the Washington Post. “Refugees are in a particularly vulnerable situation, waiting to get their flights and waiting to be able to get out of camps and really difficult situations.”
Reprehensible cowardice, Joe.
I will say this much: I’ve been working with the State Department on improving the refugee program and there is progress – immediately with regard to certain locations in Asia but also elsewhere.
I thought Joe had gotten past this. Here’s the problem - they’re going to say he’s a Commie who threw open the borders to those people so that they could take away that fruit picking job that Real Americans™ had their eye on. His actions don’t matter, they will still say that’s what he’s doing.
Because the people that message is targeted at will believe it, and sure as hell aren’t going to go past Fox or Breitbart for “research”.
So why let them control your actions? This kind of thing was my biggest concern about Obama’s VP as President, and up until now he’s done such a good job of resisting that instinct…
Not good policy and likely not good politics. Granted that immigration/border issues are the one area GOPers have clearly managed to get the brain dead media to bite on, so avoiding action even on adjacent issues might seem smart.
But the media’s need to stir the shit using bad faith GOP arguments isn’t going anywhere. Already there’s boo hooing about “bipartisanship,” whatever that’s supposed to mean these days, and BS concerns about inflation.
The right tactic is to punch back. The Republicans refuse to address solutions to immigration issues because they are racist fearmongers who have zero to offer the American people in positive policies.
Presuming, with good reason, that this isn’t based on political cowardice on the part of the Dems., it isn’t clear why they are delaying on this issue. lt would be interesting to hear a solid, fact-based, discussion on this issue. Biden and Co. aren’t doing themselves, or anyone else, any good by not discussing this issue.
In present times, lack of information leaves a vacuum of uncertainty that just begs mischief and misunderstanding.