While much of the refugee and Muslim ban has been on hold, the January 27 executive order also slashed the number of refugees that the United States will resettle in fiscal year 2017 from 110,000 to just 50,000; this reduction has already gone into effect even as it remains the subject of ongoing litigation. It is significant that in the midst of an unprecedented global refugee crisis, this target of 50,000 refugee admissions is the lowest figure set since presidents began setting annual targets pursuant to the Refugee Act of 1980.
Given that the United States has already resettled roughly 35,000 refugees this fiscal year, that only leaves 15,000 more people to enter for the rest of 2017. This does not include the 67,000 refugees who are in the U.S. pipeline and already approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. Additionally, the U.N. estimates that worldwide there are 65 million displaced people. With such a significant decrease in the number of refugees accepted into the country, families will be forced to wait longer overseas. These longer wait times will create a further backlog on top of whatever backlog is created by those individuals having to restart the process due to expiring clearances under the pause.
Additionally, with disruptions to the refugee program, organizations who resettle families in the United States will also have to halt the work they do to process refugees and prepare for their arrival, creating longer backlogs and logistical hurdles. Without a functioning resettlement program, resettlement organizations and their local partners run the risk of shutting their doors permanently, dismantling our country's capacity to serve refugees already here and welcome new refugees when a future administration decides to reverse these cuts in arrivals. In fact one resettlement agency, World Relief, recently laid off over 140 staff and closed five of its offices.
after all the stressed we all going to be bald haha.
