Biden on refugee cap: 'We couldn't do two things at once'
By Jordan Williams - 04/17/21 06:56 PM EDT This video file cannot be played.(Error Code: 232001)
President Biden on Saturday explained his initial decision to not increase the limit on refugee admissions to the United States, stating that his administration "couldn't do two things at once."
Speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Del., at the end of a golf session Saturday, Biden explained that he couldn’t initially increase the cap due to burdens that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is facing because of an influx of unaccompanied child migrants at the southern border.
“We’re going to increase the number. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people,†Biden said according to a White House pool report.
“We couldn’t do two things at once. But now we are going to increase the number,†he continued.
The comment comes a day after the White House reversed course on a decision to keep the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. at Trump-era levels. The decision was made following blowback from Democrats who wanted to see a higher cap.
Biden signed an order on Friday maintaining the 15,000 cap on refugee admissions for fiscal year 2021, a controversial number set by former President Trump’s administration. It is also far below the cap of 62,500 that Biden wanted to put in place for 2021.
Several Democratic lawmakers including members of the "squad" took to twitter to slam the Biden administration's decision.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/548855-biden-on-broadening-refugee-cap-we-couldnt-do-two-things-at-once