AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
- The US admitted 915 refugees in May, compared to 272 the month before.
- More than 3,200 refugees have been resettled in fiscal year 2021.
- It is highly unlikely the US will hit this year's admissions cap of 62,500.
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After an exceptionally slow start, the United States under President Joe Biden is finally beginning to accept more refugees, with the number resettled last month more than tripling compared to the month before.
Refugee admissions had previously declined each month of Biden's presidency, despite the new administration's pledge to rebuild a resettlement program that had been gutted by its predecessor. As Insider reported, just 272 refugees were admitted in April, putting the US on track to accept the fewest number of displaced people since the resettlement program was created in 1980.
But in interviews, officials at US refugee resettlement agencies said there were real signs the Biden administration was indeed working to build back the capacity to accept far more people fleeing war and political repression.
That's beginning to show up in the numbers.
According to the latest figures from the State Department, released Monday, 915 refugees were admitted in May. That's the highest number since the 2021 fiscal year began last October.
Overall, though, the US has resettled just 3,250 refugees this fiscal year, putting it on track to accept even fewer refugees than it did in 2020, when fewer than 12,000 were admitted, an historic low. After some waffling, Biden set this year's admissions cap at 62,500, with a goal of resettling as many as 125,000 in his first full year in office.
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