FY2021 Refugee Ceiling Increase

FY2021 Refugee Ceiling Increase

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INSIGHTi
FY2021 Refugee Ceiling Increase
May 11, 2021
On May 3, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an emergency presidential determination (PD) to raise the
FY2021 refugee ceiling to 62,500. It followed an earlier emergency PD on FY2021 refugee admissions
signed by President Biden on April 16, 2021. The first emergency PD revised the al ocations in the
original FY2021 PD issued by President Donald Trump, but left the refugee ceiling unchanged at 15,000.
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 al ocates that ceiling among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States. INA
Section 207(b) further al ows 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 May 2021 emergency PD, President Biden offered the following explanation for raising the
FY2021 refugee ceiling from 15,000 to 62,500:
Upon additional briefing and a more comprehensive presentation regarding the capacity of the
executive departments and agencies charged with administering USRAP [U.S. Refugee Admissions
Program] to increase refugee admissions while responding to other demands, and given the ongoing
unforeseen emergency refugee situation, I now determine, consistent with my Administration’s
prior consultation with the Congress, that raising the number of admissions permissible for FY 2021
to 62,500 is justified by grave humanitarian concerns and is otherwise in the national interest.
The Biden Administration had proposed increasing the FY2021 refugee cap to 62,500 in a report provided
to the Judiciary Committees in advance of February 2021 consultations on an emergency PD. Instead, in
an unexpected move, President Biden retained the pre-existing refugee cap of 15,000 in his April 2021
emergency PD.
The May 2021 emergency PD al ocates the new 62,500 refugee ceiling by region. It increases the
al ocation provided for each region and the unal ocated reserve in the earlier emergency PD (see Table 1).
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Table 1. FY2021 Revised Refugee Ceiling and Allocations Under Emergency PDs
Region
April 2021 PD
May 2021 PD
Africa
7,000
22,000
East Asia
1,000
6,000
Europe and Central Asia
1,500
4,000
Latin America and the
3,000
5,000
Caribbean
Near East and South Asia
1,500
13,000
Unal ocated Reserve
1,000
12,500
Total
15,000
62,500
Source: U.S. President (Biden), “Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2021,”
Presidential Determination No. 2021–05 of April 16, 2021, 86 Federal Register 21159, April 22, 2021; U.S. President
(Biden), “Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2021 ,” Presidential Determination
No. 2021–06 of May 3, 2021, 86 Federal Register 24475, May 7, 2021.
Note: The unal ocated reserve is to be used if, and where, a need develops for refugee slots in excess of a region ’s
al ocation.
In a statement accompanying the new emergency PD, President Biden suggested the symbolic value of
increasing the refugee ceiling to 62,500. He maintained that the prior ceiling of 15,000 “did not reflect
America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees.” In his words, “it is important to take
this action today to remove any lingering doubt in the minds of refugees around the world who have
suffered so much, and who are anxiously waiting for their new lives to begin.” The President also made
clear that he did not expect the new, higher ceiling to be met. He referenced “the damage of the last four
years” to the refugee program that “wil take some time” to address, and stated, “the sad truth is that we
wil not achieve 62,500 admissions this year.”
According to FY2021 refugee admissions data, a total of 2,334 refugees had been admitted to the United
States as of April 30, 2021. By region, these admissions were as follows: Africa (755), East Asia (187),
Europe and Central Asia (692), Latin America and the Caribbean (141), and Near East and South Asia
(559).
In his May 2021 statement, President Biden looked ahead to setting the FY2022 refugee admissions
ceiling. He commented that his FY2022 budget “reflects my commitment to the goal of 125,000 refugee
admissions in the first fiscal year of my presidency.” He also noted that it would be difficult to achieve
that level of admissions, and that “we might not make it the first year.” As in his comments about the
FY2021 refugee ceiling, he cast efforts in future years to “help these fully-vetted refugees fleeing horrific
conditions in their home countries” as an assertion of “American leadership and American values.”

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Author Information

Andorra Bruno

Specialist in Immigration Policy

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