President Joe Biden plans to act soon to boost the number of refugees admitted into the country, his chief of staff told progressive lawmakers Wednesday.
Chief of Staff Ron Klain made the commitment in a White House meeting with members of the House Demoratic Progressive Caucus, who hold a strong hand in the narrowly divided chamber, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s majority trimmed to just three votes.
Klain told the lawmakers he would boost the cap soon, Politico playbook reported, while also telling them more needs to be done at the border, according to CPC chair Rep. Pramila Jaypal (D-Wash.). The administration is rushing to get new facilities online amid a crush of unaccompanied children at the border.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain met with progressive lawmakers Wednesday and told them a boost to the number of refugees allowed into the country would be announced soon
President Biden and his team have blamed the Trump administration for dismantling the nation’s immigration system during the previous four years.
‘They want to speed that up. They want to more quickly work on a solution, and we all understood the importance of that,’ she said.
Biden plans to boost the annual cap on refugees to 62,500 for the current fiscal year, Reuters reported in early February. That is a boost from just 15,000 set by Trump.
Broken down by region, that would make spots for 22,000 refugees from Africa, 5,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, 6,000 from East Asia, 4,000 from Europe and Central Asia, and 13,000 from South Asia – plus 12,500 unallocated spots.
Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jaypal received reassurances on immigration and other issues from the White House
President Biden is expected to dramatically boost the number of refugee slots allowed each year, but a formal announcement is waiting
The number is expected to jump to 125,000 slots for the next fiscal year. But despite sourced reports about the numbers, Biden’s team has made no official announcement, as some Democratic lawmakers have noted.
‘I think they ought to put out a public assessment of where they are on these issues because people have different views based on different facts,’ Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, the Huffington Post reported.
The administration’s assurances on refugees come as the situation on the border continues to serve as both a severe logistical and political challenge, as the government scrambles to handle the influx.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that advisors who have visited the border have provided President Joe Biden with detailed briefings ‘with photos’ on the conditions inside government holding facilities at the border.
She provided the detail amid an uproar over a flood of unaccompanied children at the border – with the government holding more than 3,000 of them beyond the three days set by law inside Customs and Border Patrol facilities.
Psaki was asked at her daily press briefing why Biden did not have plans to visit the border amid the immigration surge. ‘Because his focus is on action,’ said Psaki, a day after Biden said he didn’t have plans to go ‘at the moment.’
She said Biden has been briefed on conditions by his team, including officials who traveled there in recent days.
‘He talks to plenty of officials. He also has received a briefing with photos, and directly from his team that went and visited the border,’ she said.
She then confirmed to DailyMail.com that Biden has specifically been shown photographs from inside facilities where unaccompanied children are being held upon arrival. The administration has confirmed in some cases they are held for more than the three days that federal law limits for such facilities.
‘Yes that was part of the briefing he received when his team came back,’ she said.
Psaki bristled when DailyMail.com asked whether Biden approved of what he saw and if conditions looked okay to him.
‘I certainly did not say that. The Border Patrol facilities are not facilities made for children. He is committed to expediting the processing at the border – one of the reasons he wanted a briefing from people who have been in there so he can see himself, what it looks like,’ she said.