While speaking about the United States’ chaotic withdrawal out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden attacked former President Donald Trump for reducing refugee resettlement to the U.S. after decades of mass migration.
During an address on Tuesday, Biden claimed Trump “purposefully destroyed” the refugee resettlement program by merely reducing the number of refugees the U.S. resettles annually, a presidential power that is supported by the Refugee Act of 1980.
“We must all work together to resettle thousands of Afghans who ultimately qualify for refugee status,” Biden said. “The United States will do our part and we’re already working closely with refugee organizations to rebuild a system that was purposefully destroyed by my predecessor.”
During Trump’s four years in office, he hugely reduced the number of refugees arriving in the U.S. to better vet foreign nationals and cut overall immigration levels following decades of mass migration.
In Fiscal Year 2020, for instance, Trump’s administration resettled fewer than 12,000 refugees across the U.S. and from Fiscal Year 2017 to Fiscal Year 2019, resettled about 106,200 refugees — far fewer than the hundreds of thousands who were resettled by the Obama and Bush administrations.
U.S. Airmen and Marines guide qualified evacuees aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, August 21, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brennen Lege)
While reducing annual inflows, Trump also gave states and localities more say in the matter by signing an executive order that provided governors, mayors, and county officials with veto power over refugee resettlement.
Biden, as Breitbart News reported, canceled the executive order in February, ensuring that Afghans will be resettled across the U.S. with no input from states, localities, and local residents, instead, giving sole power to nine refugee contractors funded by the State Department.
Over the last 20 years, nearly a million refugees have been resettled in the nation — more than double that of residents living in Miami, Florida, and it would be the equivalent of annually adding the population of Pensacola, Florida.
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.
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