Promising to reclaim America’s “proud legacy” of providing refuge to those seeking asylum, Joe Biden announced on Thursday his intention to dramatically increase the number of refugees permitted to come to the United States. The Trump administration limited the number to 15,000 per year while Biden said he will raise that more than 8-fold, to 125,000.
“The United States has long stood as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden and the oppressed, a leader of resettling refugees in our humanitarian response,” the former vice president said. “The Biden-Harris administration will restore America’s historic role in protecting the vulnerable and defending the rights of refugees everywhere and raising our annual refugee admission target to 125,000.”
Biden had previously referred to President Trump’s immigration and refugee policy as xenophobic, racist, and based on unjustified fear-mongering.
Trump continually justified the lower number of refugee settlement as being in the “national interest.” Recent studies have estimated that each refugee will cost American taxpayers more than $130,000 over the course of their lives.
