The administration of United States President Joe Biden is set to up the country’s refugee acceptance cap for the coming fiscal year, which begins on October 1. People familiar with the plan say that the limit will be increased to 125,000 annually, according to US media reports.
The plan of raising the cap was originally highlighted in Biden’s presidential campaign of 2020.
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Earlier this year, the Biden administration went back and forth on raising the refugee acceptance limit and for the fiscal year of 2021. The bar was set at 62,500 people at the end of prolonged negotiations with the United States Congress.
According to reports from CNN citing the Refugee Processing Center of the US the country admitted refugees in capacities way lower than the current goal set by the Biden administration. The reports suggested that only 7,637 refugees were brought into the United States.
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Senator Richard Durbin, who is a member of the democrat party and a lawmaker from the state of Illinois, said in a statement, “I applaud the Biden administration for setting a target of 125,000 refugee admissions in the next fiscal year — a target my colleagues and I have been advocating for since April”, the Washington Post reported.
Durbin, who is also the Senate majority whip, added, “And while I’m disappointed in the projected number of refugees to be admitted this fiscal year, I acknowledge the challenges the Biden administration inherited with the US Refugee Admissions Program due to the anti-immigrant actions of the previous Administration”, the report added.
The inputs come as the United States is admitting a flurry of refugees from the war-torn nation of Afghanistan as American troops have been recalled, ending a two-decade-long war.