President Biden to Increase Refugee Cap to 125K Amid Border Surge
President Joe Biden and his administration plan to double the refugee cap for the Fiscal Year 2022, which will start on October 1.
The Biden administration announced their plan through the U.S. State Department on Monday, saying that the target ceiling for the refugee cap next fiscal year is 125,000. The said number was double the current refugee cap of 62,500 refugees. In May, President Biden had raised the refugee cap from the 15,000 limits set by former President Donald Trump.
The State Department explained in a press release that the recommendation of the Biden administration to raise the refugee cap for the next fiscal year was done to "address needs generated by humanitarian crises around the globe," Daily Wire reported.
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Biden Administration's Refugee Cap Allocation
Apart from proposing a higher number of refugee cap for Fiscal Year 2022, the Biden administration also provided allocations to different groups of refugees from the 125,000.
In the new proposal, the Biden administration would allow 40,000 refugees from Africa, and 35,000 to the Near East and South Asia, the region where Afghanistan is located. Meanwhile, the U.S. would allow 25,000 refugees from Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and another 15,000 refugees from East Asia would also be permitted, according to the press release by the State Department.
The regional subtotal for the refugees was 115,000, but the administration designated 10,000 slots more for the unallocated reserve, making the total of the refugee cap for Fiscal Year 2022, to 125,000.
The proposal increase announced by the State Department comes as the Biden administration faces a migrant surge in the southern border and an uptick of Afghan citizens over the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan.
Approximately 40,000 Afghan citizens were brought to the United States after the U.S. withdrawal in the South Asian country, New York Post reported, citing WSJ. However, none of the thousands of Afghan citizens were classified as refugees due to the rush with which they were taken out of their country.
Meanwhile, thousands of migrants from Haiti gathered under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, prompting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to call on President Biden to deploy national guards to help control the situation in the area.
Vietnamese Americans Help Afghan Refugees
Aside from the Biden administration, Vietnamese Americans also made their move to help the Afghan refugees resettle in the United States.
As the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, Vietnamese Americans gave out monetary donations to resettlement groups and help provide housing, furniture, and legal assistance to newly arriving refugees from Afghanistan. Some Vietnamese Americans also offered to guide the Afghan refugees and teach them how to shop at a supermarket, enroll kids in school, and drive a car in the U.S.
"We were them 40 years ago," Thuy Do, a Vietnamese American doctor in Seattle, said. Do incorporates the similarities of the Afghan refugees to them "with the fall of Saigon in 1975."
Meanwhile, another Vietnamese American identified as Andrew Do, said that they experienced what the Afghan refugees experienced, and they can't help but feel that they are "brethren" due to their common ground.
It can be recalled that hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese arrived in the U.S. since the Vietnam war. To date, the group is the sixth-largest immigrant group in the U.S.
This article is owned by Latin Post
Written By: Joshua Summers
WATCH: US Evacuation Operation: Afghan Refugees Arrive in Northern Virginia - From Al Jazeera English
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