President Trump Sets 2020 Refugee Resettlement Ceiling at 18,000

For the fiscal year 2020 starting October 1, President Donald Trump announced that the United States of America will reduce the 2020 refugee resettlement ceiling in the country to 18,000.

Many refugees support groups had expressed their protest on the extremely low maximum number of yearly refugees' resettlement. This is the lowest limit set by any US leader throughout its history.

In the past, the United States of America had taken the top position in taking more refugees among other countries around the globe. There had been a falling trend in the number of refugee acceptance every year for the previous 20 years. The falling trend of yearly refugee acceptance had been a sign of the country's falling capability of supporting refugees in the future. This falling trend had also gravely affected worldwide resettlement systems.

Since the 1950s, the United States of America had been opening its arms wide in accepting refugees. After World War II, many refugees from Hungary and Cuba had looked for a safer place to live and luckily migrated to the United States.

Before 1980, there were no refugee resettlement systems that were created and implemented. The Refugee Act of 1980 had started the implementation of the modern refugee resettlement system in the United States.

Through this act, the President is given the power to set the limit for the number of refugee resettlement cases allowed every year. This limit is called the "ceiling".

The first refugee resettlement ceiling was set in 1980 at 231,700. During that year, there were 207,116 refugees that benefitted from the refugee resettlement act.

Upon the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, refugees from different origins such as those from Vietnam and Cambodia resettled in the US.

Since the first enactment of the refugee resettlement act in 1980, the ceiling was gradually lowered and raised depending on various historical events such as wars and economic failures of communities.

Upon the approval of the resettlement of refugees in the United States of America, they are obligated to undertake the latest security clearance. This normally includes interviews and biometric data collection by trusted US agencies under the Department of Homeland Security. This process can last for eighteen to twenty-four months.

In more than a decade, the count of yearly refugee resettlements had been under the ceiling set by the current President and had risen and dropped for various reasons such as the birth of new wars.

According to the law, the current US president is required to consult with the heads of the House and Senate bodies yearly before September 30 in drafting and setting the ceiling every year.

Just like his predecessors, President Trump's leadership had left-out the act of consulting with experts such as experience lawmakers in drafting and finalizing the 2020 refugee resettlement ceiling.

Despite the drop in the 2020 refugee resettlement ceiling, the United States of America still reigns as the top generous country in the world in terms of the yearly count of refugee resettlement approvals.