Former administration officials who worked for Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump are lobbying President Joe Biden to bring more refugees to the United States.

Late last year, then-President Trump set the fiscal year 2021 refugee resettlement cap at 15,000 refugees. This is only a numerical limit and not intended to be a goal for federal officials to reach.

Biden had kept the refugee cap at 15,000 for this fiscal year but following backlash from the refugee and migration lobby, as well as Democrats, his administration reversed course and now says they plan to increase the number of refugees admitted to the U.S.

In a letter to Biden this month, former Bush and Trump administration officials are asking Biden to surge the number of refugees admitted this fiscal year by more than 316 percent.

The letter states:

We are writing in response to your administration’s recent decision to maintain the historically low refugee cap of 15,000 with the expectation that you will increase it by May 15, 2021. We are deeply disappointed that U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has not yet been fortified, and we encourage your Administration to be more transparent and forthcoming with information regarding increases to the USRAP. [Emphasis added]

…

We recognize there is much work to be done to restore the USRAP, but USRAP partners overseas and within the United States are limited in what they can do to rebuild their infrastructure until you sign the Presidential Determination expanding the refugee ceiling. We urge you to act quickly to raise the ceiling to 62,500 this fiscal year, en route to a more robust number in 2022. The longer we wait to address the backlog of vetted and approved refugees – let alone the growing number of displaced persons worldwide – the greater the long-term risk to our national security. We also recommend that you couple this announcement with a clear message that the southern border remains closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to deter migrants from making the perilous trek to the United States and ensure lawful, orderly processing of the most vulnerable. [Emphasis added]

…

The United States cannot wait any longer to resume its humanitarian leadership by welcoming the most vulnerable refugees in a manner that is consistent with our national security interests and our democratic and humanitarian values, and demonstrates a posture of inclusion and opportunity that contrasts with our authoritarian adversaries. The United States is the world’s best hope for opportunity and freedom. We look forward to working with you to ensure that remains the case for future generations. [Emphasis added]

Those who signed the letter included former Bush and Trump administration officials, including Marc Frey, John Mitnick, Michael Neifach, Elizabeth Neumann, Paul Rosenzweig, C. Stewart Verdery Jr., and Jim Williams.

Already, Biden has vowed to increase refugee resettlement by nearly 960 percent for fiscal year 2022 — signing an order that will bring 125,000 refugees to the U.S. next year.

There are nine refugee contractors — who have a vested interest in ensuring as many refugees are resettled across the U.S. as possible because their annual federally-funded budgets are contingent on the number of refugees they resettle — that have a monopoly on the resettlement of refugees.

The contractors include:

Church World Service (CWS), Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and World Relief Corporation (WR).

Over the last 20 years, nearly one million refugees have been resettled in the country. This is a number more than double that of residents living in Miami, Florida, and would be the equivalent of annually adding the population of Pensacola, Florida, to the country.

Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to research, and each refugee costs taxpayers about $133,000 over the course of their lifetime. Within five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.