The Trump administration has officially capped how many refugees can resettle in the United States in fiscal year 2019 at a record low—and there’s absolutely no guarantee that officials will even meet that number, either. Sec. of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that officials have slashed admissions for fiscal year 2019 to 30,000, “the lowest ceiling a president has placed on the refugee program since its creation in 1980,” the New York Times reports. But with only two weeks left in fiscal year 2018, officials have failed to reach the current cap of 45,000 admissions by nearly 25,000, a dark victory for White House aide and white supremacist Stephen Miller.
“As one piece of his broader push to narrow a variety of legal pathways for migrants to make their way into the United States,” the New York Times continued, “Mr. Miller had pressed for capping the program at as low as 25,000 people, according to people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.”
Miller didn’t get the lower number he wanted, but he still won out over Pompeo and the State Department, which “had supported maintaining the 45,000-refugee ceiling, these people said.” Supposedly. It’s ridiculous that an aide so widely despised would win out over the U.S. Secretary of State—unless, of course, they actually share the same opinion and want to slam the door shut on as many refugees as possible.
What we do know is that Miller has influenced or led some of the worst anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration, and this week he got yet another ugly notch in his belt, and this notch will kill people. “In light of the worst global refugee crisis in history,” said Hannah Graf Evans of the Quaker Lobby, “this low refugee admissions goal is another tone-deaf demonstration of our nation’s failure to fulfill our faithful responsibility to welcome the stranger.”
The dwindling number of refugees have already had considerable effects, resettlement agencies all over the U.S. say. Catholic Charities USA’s vice president of social policy told The Atlantic that the group has had to close eight offices so far, and expects to shut down another 14 by the end of the year. “It is becoming increasingly clear,” said J. Kevin Appleby of the Center for Migration Studies, “that the goal of this White House is to cripple the U.S. refugee program.”