Joe Biden expected to announce increase in number of refugees admitted to the United States

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President Joe Biden, who has pledged to raise the cap during the campaign, is expected to announce plans to increase the number of refugees allowed into the United States during a visit to the State Department, a source says . The Trump administration has set a ceiling of 15,000 refugees for this fiscal year, the lowest since 1980. It is not known by how much the Biden administration will increase that ceiling.

The refugee cap must be approved by the president. Biden has pledged to set an annual admissions cap at 125,000, although the plan is to wait until October, when the next fiscal year begins, to set that cap, according to one of the sources.

The increase in the refugee ceiling builds on a series of executive actions by Biden aimed at setting a new direction for U.S. immigration policy following the radical approach of the Trump administration.

On Tuesday, the president signed three executive orders that largely direct the review of Trump-era policies, including the creation of a task force designed to reunite families separated on the US-Mexico border.

“I am not making a new law, I am eliminating bad policies,” Biden said in the White House, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. “This is about how America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly and humane legal immigration system.”

Prior to taking office, bolstering refugee admissions had been a central concern of Biden’s transition team and the Department of Homeland Security, which plays a role in the process, a source familiar with the talks told CNN.

Each year, the administration sets a limit on the number of refugees who can be admitted to the United States. Historically, the number of admissions has fluctuated based on world events, although it is generally high.

Between the fiscal years 1990 and 1995, for example, many refugees arriving in the United States were from the former Soviet Union, according to the Pew Research Center.

And in the last few years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the administration has raised the refugee ceiling from 85,000 in fiscal 2016 to 110,000 in fiscal 2017 amid the Syrian crisis.

This story was updated with additional information on Wednesday.

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