Biden Retracts Order to Keep Trump-Era Refugee Cap After Backlash
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden announced his plans to pull all remaining U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 in a final step towards ending America’s longest war. Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images

The White House said Friday that President Joe Biden would keep in place the historically low refugee cap set for this year by former President Donald Trump, drawing the ire of refugee advocates and several Democratic lawmakers.

A senior official administration said earlier on Friday that Biden would sign an order that would keep this year's refugee cap of 15,000, an opposite to what he had committed to doing.

The order would also suppose to lift refugee admission restrictions on regions previously blocked by the Trump administration, such as Africa and the Middle East.

It added that the president would consult Congress if there is a need to increase the number of admissions, according to a USA Today report.

But after facing public outcry over the decision to keep the current refugee cap in place, the White House issued another statement later in the day and said that Biden is now planning to set a final and "increased refugee cap" for the remainder of this year by May 15.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president had been discussing with his advisers the number of refugees that could "realistically" admitted to the country for the remainder of the year. AFP News reported.

"Given the decimated refugee admissions program we inherited, and burdens on the Office of Refugee Resettlement, his initial goal of 62,500 seems unlikely," Psaki noted.

Earlier, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had announced that the U.S. would allow 62,500 refugees to resettle as justified by humanitarian concerns.

Democrats Criticize

Both progressive and moderate Democrats have attacked Biden's decision after signing an emergency determination extending Trump's order to let in 15,000 refugees into the U.S. this fiscal year.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed her dismay over a tweet, saying it was completely unacceptable.

Ocasio-Cortez said that Biden promised to welcome immigrants and that he was elected due to that promise.

Biden's known ally and the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, said that Biden fails to make good on his promise to reverse Trump's refugee policies, according to a Daily News report.

Meanwhile, immigrant advocates said they would take the Biden administration's policy procurements with a grain of salt after the mixed messaging.

Omar Jadwat, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, said to "credit when they do" and not what they vowed to do.

Chief of Staff Ron Klain earlier said that they made a promise a White House meeting with members of the House Democratic Progressive Caucus to boost the refugee cap soon, Daily Mail reported.

Biden's initial promise to boost the refugee cap to 62,500 would mean it would create spots for 22,000 refugees from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean to have 5,000 and 6,000 from East Asia. It would also mean 4,000 from Europe and Centra Asia and 13,000 from South Asia.

On top of that, there would still be 12,500 unallocated spots. The number for refugee cap is seen to peak to 125,000 slots for the next fiscal year. However, the Biden administration has made no official announcement as of the moment.

WATCH: Democrats Slam President Biden For Not Immediately Lifting Refugee Cap - From CNBC Television