Biden to Increase the Refugee Cap to 62,500

The move is a stark contrast to the refugee policies of the previous administration (Flickr).

Following months of deliberation and fierce pressure, President Joe Biden lifted the annual refugee cap to 62,500 on May 3, increasing it from the record-low amount of 15,000 under the Trump administration. While Biden did state that this increase was because the previous cap “did not reflect America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees,” he did openly state that admissions will likely fall below this number.

“The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year. We are working quickly to undo the damage of the last four years. It will take some time, but that work is already underway,” the president said in a statement on his website.

This decision follows a promise made on the campaign trail to increase the refugee cap to 125,000 and consistent accusations that the Trump administration “reduced the refugee resettlement ceiling to its lowest level in decades and slammed the door on thousands of individuals suffering persecution, many of whom face threats of violence or even death in their home countries.” 

In April 2021, however, Biden nearly backed out on this campaign promise, initially stating that the administration will keep the cap at 15,000 refugees. Nevertheless, he quickly reversed course after facing backlash from Democratic politicians and major refugee rights advocacy groups. In the same White House statement mentioned above, the president stated intentions of expanding the cap to the original promise of 125,000, saying, “That goal will still be hard to hit. We might not make it the first year.”

The move has been met with cautious optimism from refugee advocacy organizations. "We are relieved that the Biden administration has, after a long and unnecessary delay, kept its promise to raise the refugee admissions cap for this year to 62,500," Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America’s global policy lead, told USA Today. "This announcement means the United States can finally begin to rebuild the lifesaving refugee resettlement program and welcome the tens of thousands of people who have been left stranded by four years of the Trump administration's xenophobic policies and three months of the Biden administration's inaction."

This debate over increasing the refugee cap is actively occurring in light of a refugee crisis globally, with the UNHCR reporting 80 million people being forcibly displaced in mid-2020, 26.3 million of whom are refugees.