President Barack Obama’s deputies have dropped 502 additional refugees into Nebraska during the first three months of FY 2017, according to the Department of State.
The refugee resettlement rate for FY 2017 to date is significantly higher in Nebraska than it has been during any other year in the more three decades the state has participated in the federal refugee resettlement program.
The highest previous annual resettlement of refugees in the state since FY 2003 occurred in FY 2016, when 1,441 refugees were resettled. The highest previous annual resettlement of refugees in the state since FY 2003 occurred in FY 2016, when 1,441 refugees were resettled.
President-elect Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail that he will pause the resettlement of refugees from Syria and other countries that are hostile to the United States, so the current inflow will likely drop after his inauguration as the 45th president on Jan. 20.
On a per capita basis, Nebraska has resettled more refugees than any other state in the country during the first three months of FY 2017. With an estimated population of 1.9 million as of July 1, 2016, 26.3 refugees have been resettled in the state for every 100,000 residents during the period beginning October 1, 2016 and ending December 29, 2016. (With two days left in the third month of FY 2017, the final numbers are likely to be slightly higher).
Four more red states round out the top five recipients of resettled refugees on a per capita basis during the first three months of FY 2017.
In North Dakota, where Donald Trump won by a 64 percent to 28 percent margin, the federal government resettled 21.6 refugees per 100,000 residents.
In Kentucky, where Donald Trump won by a 62 percent to 32 percent margin, the federal government resettled 19.7 refugees per 100,000 residents.
In Arizona, where Donald Trump won by a 49 percent to 45 percent margin, the federal government resettled 19.5 refugees per 100,000 residents.
In Idaho, where Donald Trump won by a 59 percent to 28 percent margin, the federal government resettled 19.0 refugees per 100,000 residents.
Delaware, the state Vice President Joe Biden represented in the United States Senate for forty years, received no refugees at all during this period. In fact, Delaware did not resettle a single refugee in FY 2016. In the fourteen full fiscal years since 2003, the federal government has resettled only 130 refugees in the state.
Wyoming, which is the only state that never formally joined the federal refugee resettlement program after the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, is the only other state which received no refugees in the first three months of FY 2017.
The Obama administration has resettled refugees in the United States during the first three months of FY 2017 at a rate that is nearly double the rate during the same three month period of FY 2016, the prior fiscal year, as Breitbart News reported earlier this week.
Between October 1, 2016 and December 29, 2016, the Obama administration resettled 25,671 refugees in the United States. With an estimated population of 321 million in the United States as of July 1, 2016, the number of refugees resettled across the entire country during this time period was 8.0 per 100,000 residents.
Hawaii, President Obama’s home state before he moved to Illinois, resettled only three refugees during the first three months of FY 2017, a per capita rate of 0.2 per 100,000 residents, well below the national average.
Illinois, which President Obama represented in the United States Senate prior to his election as president in 2008, resettled only 6.2 refugees per 100,000 residents during the first three months of FY 2017, a per capita rate below the national average.
Hillary Clinton won Hawaii by a 62 percent to 30 percent margin over President-elect Trump, and won Illinois by a 55 percent to 39 percent margin.
Only two refugees were resettled in the District of Columbia, which Hillary Clinton won by a 92 percent to 4 percent margin, during this period, a per capita rate of 0.3 refugees per 100,000 residents, well below the national average.
As Breitbart News reported previously, Nebraska has an extraordinarily high rate of foreign-born cases of active tuberculosis (TB). In 2014, for instance, 82 percent of the cases of active TB in the state (31 out of 38) were foreign-born.
Breitbart News also reported recently about a case of active TB diagnosed in a student at Benson Magnet High School in Omaha, Nebraska, where 18 percent of the school’s 1,272 students are foreign-born refugees.
Here is the per capita refugee resettlement rates during the first three months of FY 2017 for all fifty states and the District of Columbia.