Trump administration on Wednesday announced its intention to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. to a maximum of 45,000 which appears to be the lowest intake of refugees by the united states in decades. It also plans to slash funding to the refugee resettlement by 25 percent.
According to the administration, this decision was made to ensure U.S. security saying that the refugees fleeing their countries because of war pose a great threat to the United States.
“The security and safety of the American people is our chief concern,” a U.S. official said in a call with reporters on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We have every plan to process as many refugees as we can under this ceiling.”
However, this decision was condemned by Democrats and humanitarian groups saying that the decision “is an abdication of our moral authority, and an abandonment of the very values that make America great.”
The administration proposed taking in a maximum of 19,000 refugees from Africa, 5,000 from East Asia, 2,000 from Europe and Central Asia, 1,500 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 17,500 from the Middle East and South Asia.
