US set to admit fewest number of refugees since 1980: New analysis
A new analysis on the number of foreign refugees expected to be admitted to the US in the fiscal year 2018 indicates that the Trump administration is set to admit fewest refugees in the country since 1980.
The UK-based Economist magazine reported Saturday that only 20,800 refugees are expected to be admitted in the US during the first full fiscal year under the administration of hawkish US President Donald Trump.
That figure, the report said, is down 61 percent from fiscal year 2017, which was partly governed under former President Barack Obama.
The magazine further pointed out that the number of Muslim refugees entering the US in 2018 is set to plunge by nearly 85 percent, adding that while Muslims comprised 41 percent of admitted refugees between 2013 and 2017, they make up merely 17 percent of refugees in 2018 so far.
This is while Christians make up almost 58 percent of the US refugee intake, the report added, noting that the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the country has declined as well from 6,557 in 2017 to only 44 so far in the current year.
Trump pledged during his presidential campaign in 2016 that he would limit the number of refugees admitted to the US, further calling for banning Muslims from entering the country altogether.
The development comes as Trump administration declared last September that it would admit no more than 45,000 refugees into the US throughout 2018. The cap is the lowest ever set for resettlement, as officials in Washington insist that it serves the country’s national security interests.
Moreover, the Trump administration also issued a controversial travel ban in January 2017, blocking entry into the US of citizens from several Muslim-majority nations.
That travel ban, however, has been revised and undergone multiple legal challenges. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this week on the constitutionality of the third iteration of the ban.
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