On the same day that President Joe Biden said he’d reduced illegal border crossings by 60% at the southwest border, he announced Monday a sweeping extension of refugee admissions for foreign nationals and “habitual residents” of countries in multiple continents.
The authorization is two-fold.
The first expands a refugee admission process to 125,000 foreign nationals from countries around the world.
The second opens a refugee admission process to foreign nationals and those with “habitual residence in” Cuba, Iraq, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, Eurasia, the Baltics, among others, with no numerical limitation.
Biden issued the sweeping measure through a memo issued to the Secretary of State (Presidential Determination No. 2024-13 on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal 2025), saying he was authorized to do so “by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act … and after appropriate consultations with Congress.”