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In a sign of how destabilizing President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be to U.S. commitments, resettlement agencies are urging the Biden administration to sharply increase refugee entries into the country before Trump’s inauguration next month. The complicated effort — involving numerous governmental and nongovernmental entities in dozens of countries — is similar in response to a global disaster but motivated by the political victory and past actions of one man.

“We are expecting as of Jan. 20 a potential and entire dismantling of the refugee admissions program,” Tara Winter, executive director of the International Rescue Committee’s Northern California office, told staff and supporters in a Dec. 5 video conference. “We do know that the numbers will plummet. And that means that people who have already been vetted to come to the United States, who have already been approved and given official status as refugees, may not be able to come.”

Trump plunged refugee admissions to historic lows during his first presidency and will reenter the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress, a Project 2025-inspired Cabinet, and a perceived mandate to deliver on his hard-line nationalist agenda of mass deportations, siege-like border security and an isolationist upending of the post-World War II playbook.

Trump’s isolationist approach will come amid an accelerating global displacement crisis, punctuated by the devastation of Gaza, Russia’s war on Ukraine and climate-related disasters. More than 120 million people were displaced in just the first four months of 2024, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. About 43 million are refugees.

“People are coming here because they had to flee, not because they are choosing to leave their homes. … Because they have nowhere else to go.”

(Raheem Hosseini)


https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/article/refugees-biden-trump-19944868.php

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In a sign of how destabilizing President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be to U.S. commitments, resettlement agencies are urging the Biden administration to sharply increase refugee entries into the country before Trump’s inauguration next month. The complicated effort — involving numerous governmental and nongovernmental entities in dozens of countries — is similar in response to a global disaster but motivated by the political victory and past actions of one man.<br /> <br /> “We are expecting as of Jan. 20 a potential and entire dismantling of the refugee admissions program,” Tara Winter, executive director of the International Rescue Committee’s Northern California office, told staff and supporters in a Dec. 5 video conference. “We do know that the numbers will plummet. And that means that people who have already been vetted to come to the United States, who have already been approved and given official status as refugees, may not be able to come.”<br /> <br /> Trump plunged refugee admissions to historic lows during his first presidency and will reenter the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress, a Project 2025-inspired Cabinet, and a perceived mandate to deliver on his hard-line nationalist agenda of mass deportations, siege-like border security and an isolationist upending of the post-World War II playbook.<br /> <br /> Trump’s isolationist approach will come amid an accelerating global displacement crisis, punctuated by the devastation of Gaza, Russia’s war on Ukraine and climate-related disasters. More than 120 million people were displaced in just the first four months of 2024, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. About 43 million are refugees.<br /> <br /> “People are coming here because they had to flee, not because they are choosing to leave their homes. … Because they have nowhere else to go.” <br /> <br /> (Raheem Hosseini)<br /> <br /> <br /> https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/article/refugees-biden-trump-19944868.php
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