In a radical departure from what his soon-to-be predecessor ordered, Joe Biden will be reviving a refugee resettlement program that will see some 125,00 refuge seekers relocate to live in the United States.
The president-elect’s proposal will see him surpass Barack Obama‘s approval ceiling of 110,000 refugees in 2016. Biden reaffirmed the promise he made prior to the presidential election speaking a video message on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Jesuit Refugee Service.
“The U.S. has long stood as a beacon of hope for the downtrodden and oppressed, a leader in resettling refugees, in our humanitarian response. I promise as president I’ll reclaim that proud legacy for our country,” the former vice-president said.
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When he became president in 2017, Donald Trump oversaw cuts to America’s ability to take in refugees from all over the world. As part of his strict immigration policy, Trump entered into agreements with some countries in Central America to take in refuge seekers who were fleeing from other countries in the same region.
This was part of an overall plan to limit as many people as the administration believed want to enter the United States under false pretenses. Critics have called it racist.
In related news last month, Cameroonian asylum seekers facing deportation back to their country said they were forced by U.S. immigration to sign their deportation papers, amid complaints by Human rights advocates that deportations have increased in recent weeks.
The men, eight in all, outlined their experiences in a complaint filed by immigrant advocate groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
A man identified in the complaint as C.A., who is terrified to go back to Cameroon in the midst of reports of human rights abuses, said U.S. immigration officers grabbed him, forced him on the ground, and pepper-sprayed his eyes. “They handcuffed me,” he added.
