Biden Plans To Reopen America To Refugees After Trump Slashed Admissions

Enlarge this image

A Kurdish refugee mother and son from the Syrian town of Kobani walk beside their tent in a camp in the southeastern town of Suruc on the Turkish-Syrian border in 2014 in Sanliurfa, Turkey. President-elect Joe Biden aims to reverse the Trump administration’s dramatic cuts to refugee admissions.

Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images

Elections
On Immigration, Biden’s Biggest Promises Likely Hinge On Who Controls The Senate

That’s the way it’s supposed to work — but the Trump administration consistently ignored the provision to confer with lawmakers, according to refugee advocates.

So far, the election has produced a divided Congress. Members may not have the appetite to take on immigration policy amid the coronavirus pandemic and an economic recession, says Muzaffar Chishti, with the Migration Policy Institute. The Biden administration will also be consumed by the COVID-19 crisis.

«For the first 100 days, there will be very little bandwidth for a Biden administration to deal with anything other than COVID. We have never faced a crisis like this before, Chishti says. «We can’t expect a huge leap on immigration policy. If people expect that this is going to happen tomorrow, they will be in for a big disappointment.