(Hill) President Biden on Friday signed an order speeding refugee admissions but maintaining fiscal 2021 admissions at 15,000, a cap set by the Trump administration and a number far below the 62,500 figure proposed to Congress earlier this year.
The order would also open up slots to refugees from regions excluded by Trump, including parts of Africa and the Middle East.
But it does not raise the ceiling, as Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who came to the United States as a refugee, had urged him to do.
It also represents a retreat for the Biden administration.
The State Department in February issued a report to Congress that proposed raising the number of refugee admissions to 62,500 for the current fiscal year.
