A total of 1,898 refugees were admitted into the United States in June, bringing the number during the first nine months of FY 2018 to 16,229.
If the number of refugees admitted into the United States under the federal Refugee Admissions Program during the last three months of FY 2018 continue at the same rate, the total number of refugees admitted during the fiscal year will be less than 22,000. That will mark the lowest number of annual refugee admissions in the more than three decades since the program was established during the Jimmy Carter administration with The Refugee Act of 1980.
More than 40 percent of the refugees admitted in June–811 out of 1,898–came from a single country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Burma, with 305 admissions, was the second highest country of origin for refugees arriving in the United States in June. Ukraine, with 241 admissions, was the third highest country of origin for refugees.
Only 10 refugees were admitted from the seven countries whose residents were temporarily banned from travel to the United States in the first executive order on the subject signed by President Trump shortly after his inauguration in January 2017, Executive Order 13769. Seven refugees were admitted from Iraq, three from Syria, and none from Iran, Libya Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen in June.
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the final version of President Trump’s travel ban, as documented in Proclamation 9645, in a 5 to 4 decision.
June’s 1,898 refugee admissions were down slightly from the 2,142 refugees admitted into the United States in May. Breitbart News reported then that “The decline in the number of refugees admitted to the U.S., and the significant change in the top countries of origin of those refugees, represents a fulfillment of one of President Trump’s major campaign promises.”
“The number and composition of refugees who have been admitted to the United States under the Trump administration differs dramatically from the Obama administration,” Breitbart News reported in April:
In FY 2016, for instance, the last full year of the Obama administration, a total of 84,995 refugees were admitted to the United States.
As for countries of origin, 36,696 refugees in FY 2016 were from the seven countries President Trump designated as “hotbeds of terrorism” in Executive Order 13769, as Breitbart News reported:
During FY 2016, the last full year of the Obama administration, the number of arrivals from those seven countries was much higher. A total of 36,696 refugees arrived that year from those seven countries: Somalia (9,020), Iraq (9,880), Sudan (1,458), Syria (12,587), Iran (3,750), Yemen (0), and Libya (1).
Forty-six percent of those arrivals in FY 2016 were Muslim, while 44 percent were Christian.
“Fifteen percent of the refugees admitted so far in FY 2018, or 2,184 out of 14,331, are Muslim, while 66 percent, or 9,496 out of 14,331, are Christian,” Breitbart News reported in May.
A preliminary review indicated religious affiliations of June’s refugee arrivals were similar. Twelve percent of arriving refugees, or 227 out of 1,898 were Muslim, while 76 percent, or 1,453 out of 1,898, were Christian.
The voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) who have, until the Trump administration, collectively been paid $1 billion annually by the federal government to resettle refugees, complained bitterly about last week’s Supreme Court decision on the travel ban, as Breitbart News reported last week.
Those complaints, however, appear to be having no impact on the Trump administration’s policy with regards to the resettlement of refugees in the United States.
The final number of refugees admitted into the United States in FY 2018, now expected to be below 22,000, is less than half of the 45,000 ceiling for refugees in FY 2018 established by President Trump.
The president will set a new ceiling for refugees for FY 2019 in September. That number is expected to be lower than the FY 2018 ceiling, and may approach the actual number of admissions in FY 208.