09.24.24

Durbin, Padilla Engage In Refugee Consultation With Biden-Harris Administration

Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration, U.S. is on track to welcome 100,000 refugees this fiscal year—marking the highest number since 1994

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, today participated in the statutorily-required refugee consultation between the Biden-Harris Administration and House and Senate Judiciary Committee leadership. The Biden-Harris Administration announced that the U.S. is on track to welcome 100,000 arrivals this fiscal year—marking the highest number of resettled refugees since 1994. The Administration also announced its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 refugee admissions target of 125,000.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Richard R. Verma, Deputy Secretary of State; Ur Mendoza Jaddou, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and Jeff Hild,  Acting Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services, represented the Administration in today’s consultation.

“While the Biden-Harris Administration inherited a dismantled refugee program and multiple crises around the globe that had led to a record number of forcibly displaced individuals, it has risen to the challenge and made great progress restoring the United States as a global leader in providing safety to refugees fleeing persecution and danger. The fact that we are on track to welcome 100,000 refugees this fiscal year—the highest number since 1994—speaks volumes to their efforts,” said Durbin and Padilla. “We also strongly support the President’s goal of resettling 125,000 refugees in Fiscal Year 2025. While this is the same target as the last few years, the number is now finally attainable rather than aspirational, given the extraordinary progress the Administration has made in rebuilding the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.”

Since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, the refugee program has had widespread bipartisan support until the Trump Administration. Between 1980 and 2017, the average refugee admissions goal was 95,000 (and never below 67,000), with an average of 80,000 actual arrivals annually. The Trump Administration decimated the infrastructure for the program, but the Biden-Harris Administration has ramped up refugee arrivals over the course of the last four years.

-30-