It is hard for the poor to pursue life, liberty, and happiness today. Why? Because rules imposed by the rich have made it harder for the rich to get themselves into heaven than it was when camels jostled to squeeze through the eye of the needle.
Presidents have -- set the refugee admissions goal as high as 240,000 (in 1980, the year Congress passed the Refugee Act) and as low as 15,000 (at the end of the first Trump Administration)."[1] The legally admitted persons during that FY 2020, a beginning of COVID year, was 11,814.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 120 million have been forced to flee their homes; 43 million of those are refugees. However, in 2022, the UNHCR referred only 116,481 refugees for resettlement. [2] Thus, only a small number of refugees worldwide will ever be considered for resettlement in the United States. [3] Trump made this situation worse by cutting refugee admissions.
The refugee US admissions goal for fiscal years 2022 through 2025 was raised from Trump's 15,000 to Biden's 125,000 refugees per year. [4] However, actual admissions did not meet the restored goal, rising from 25,465 at the tail end of the COVID epidemic to 100,034 in FY 2024. During the first four months of FY 2025 Biden admitted 30% of that FY 125,000 goal. During the following FY 2025 eight months, Trump let in only 509 refugees; none from east Asia, 1 from Europe and Central Asia, and 11 from Latin America and the Caribbean. [5]
During the first five months of FY 2026, Trump admitted 3,158 refugees-- all but three from Africa. [6] So, while we once were by far the nation taking the most refugee referrals, the US dropped behind Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, and France in the actual resettlements assigned to it by the UNHCR, based on reported 2022 referrals compared with 2026 US admissions numbers. [7]
A relative of mine is proud that his father immigrated here legally. Therefore, he and many like him hold potential immigrants to that "legal entry" standard. Will my relative and his ilk change their view once they realize the possible allowable immigration goals have dwindled to 15,000 and actual legal admissions are far below that?
It's super that some get here legally. That was not the case for my earliest American ancestor who signed the Mayflower Compact to bootstrap himself and others into the country that supposedly is being made great again. He signed it because their boat was blown off course. So, the King's Charter to occupy land in Virginia was no longer available to give Mayflower sojourners legal cover to take over native American land in Massachusetts. Then the Compact provided the self-generated authority to replace the King's Charter. We've had a history of needing legal justification, however questionable, for settling here.
The 2024 cost of processing and resettling refugees was estimated to be $2.792 billion, less that 2-3 days of the self-started war with Iran. [8]
Another relative asked, "How many immigrants should be admitted into America each year?"
"No clue," I replied. After thinking about it I'd say: "All those either illegally or legally already here; enough to pick the crops, roof our homes, clean motels, cook and serve at restaurants, care for me in my waning years, enhance the quality of our healthcare and other workforces, study at our schools, and a few extra models for people like Trump to marry.
Oh, and since Willie Nelson sings: "There's still a lot of love livin' in the Promised Land," at least 125,000 more to help provide Biblical justice to some of the 43 million refugees less fortunate than those of us we ask God to bless.
That humane treatment also should be allowed because we believe in following Judeo/Christian Biblical morality. It implores us to embrace wisdom similar to Leviticus 19:33-34 which taught: "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in "."
Hopefully, we still embrace Leviticus and our Statute of Liberty inscription , "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"."
[1] Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, paragraph 42, Case No. 2:25-cv-255, 2025-02-10_Pacito-v.-Trump_Complaint_FINAL.pdf
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