Biden Maintains Current 125,000 Cap on US Refugee Admissions

President Joe Biden on Sept. 27 announced that he will keep in place the current cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the fiscal year 2023, allowing hundreds of thousands of people fleeing persecution to seek refuge in the United States.

In a Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions published by the White House, Biden said the cap on refugees will remain the same as it was in the past year, after he doubled the cap on refugee admissions in September 2021 for the year ahead, up from 62,500.

The 125,000 target “is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest,” Biden wrote on Tuesday.

Fiscal Year 2023 begins on Oct. 1.

“I hereby determine that assistance to or on behalf of persons applying for admission to the United States as part of the overseas refugee admissions program will contribute to the foreign policy interests of the United States,” Biden said.

According to the new cap, the fiscal year 2023 will allocate 40,000 refugee spots for Africa, 35,000 for the Near East and South Asia; 15,000 for East Asia; 15,000 for Latin America and the Caribbean; and 15,000 for Europe and Central Asia. Another 5,000 spots remain in “unallocated reserve.”

“The 5,000 unallocated refugee numbers shall be allocated to regional ceilings, as needed,” according to the administration.

Additionally, Biden wrote: “upon notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, you are further authorized to transfer unused admissions allocated to a particular region to one or more other regions, if there is a need for greater admissions for the region or regions to which the admissions are being transferred.”

Former President Donald Trump had set a refugee cap of 15,000 before the Biden administration raised that cap as part of Biden’s move to welcome and support more refugees into the country, something he promised to do during his campaign.

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