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SCongressional
* Research Service-
U.S. Refugee Admissions in FY2021
April 27, 2021
On April 16, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an emergency presidential determination (PD) on FY2021
refugee admissions. The emergency PD revised the allocations in the original FY2021 PD issued by
President Donald Trump in October 2020. The new PD left the earlier one's refugee ceiling of 15,000
unchanged.
The refugee provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA §207) authorize the President, after
consulting with members of the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, to issue
a PD before the beginning of the fiscal year. In the PD, the President sets the refugee ceiling for the year
and allocates that ceiling among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States. INA
Section 207(b) further allows the President, after congressional consultation, to issue an emergency
determination in the middle of a fiscal year in the event of an unforeseen refugee emergency situation.
In the emergency PD, President Biden announced that
an unforeseen emergency refugee situation now exists due to new or increasing politicalviolence,
repres sion, atrocities, or humanitarian crises in countries including Burma, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Ethiopia, Hong Kong and Xinjiang (China), South Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, as
well as changing conditions causedby the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
He further stated that he had determined that the allocation of admissions among refugees of
humanitarian concern set forth in [the original FY2021 PD] prevents the United States Refugee
Admissions Program from responding to this unforeseen emergency refugee situation. AFebruary 2021
Department of State (DOS) report, which was provided to the Judiciary Committees in advance of the
emergency consultations, discussed aspects of the emergency situation.
That DOS report detailed the Administration's proposal to increase the FY2021 refugee ceiling to 62,500.
The emergency PD that was issued two months later instead retained the 15,000 ceiling set in the earlier
PD. The new PD stated that the admission of up to 15,000 refugees remains justified by humanitarian
concerns and is otherwise in the national interest. It also noted, Should 15,000 admissions ... be
reached prior to the end of the fiscal year and the emergency refugee situation persists, a subsequent
Presidential Determination may be issued to increase admissions, as appropriate.
The emergency PD reallocated the refugee ceiling of 15,000 by region (see Table 1). By contrast, the
original FY2021 PD, like the FY2020 PD, had allocated refugee admissions by population group. PDs for
prior years had allocated refugee admissions by region.
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN11652
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Membersand
Committeesof Congress](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveddk0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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