US Politics
Outrage as memo reveals Trump is going after refugees admitted to the US under Biden: ‘Unspeakably cruel’
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The Trump administration is planning to re-interview and potentially revoke the status of hundreds of thousands of refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, the latest move by the White House to drastically curtail resettlements inside the U.S., a government memo reveals.
The November memo, signed by Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, directs the agency to review and re-interview all of the roughly 233,000 refugees who were admitted to the country between January 20, 2021, and February 20, 2025, and blocks processing of green card applications from refugees admitted during that time period.
It criticizes the prior administration for allegedly having “prioritized expediency and quantity,” and characterizes the unprecedented move to reexamine every refugee admission during former president Joe Biden’s time in office as a necessary measure to assess national security vulnerabilities.
“Just the threat of this is unspeakably cruel. … To threaten refugees with taking away their status would be re-traumatizing and a vicious misuse of taxpayer money,” Mark Hetfield, the president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), told CNN.
The memorandum also asserts that USCIS can do the same for refugees who were admitted into the United States before January 2021, in effect permitting the administration to potentially deport any and all refugees admitted into the United States who have not yet acquired citizenship.
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In addition, USCIS plans to re-interview the spouses, children and other family members of refugees who might have joined them since coming to the United States.
The purpose of the interviews is to determine whether those who were granted refugee status actually met the statutory definition of a refugee at the time and inquire as to whether the Biden administration improperly granted waivers or exceptions to policies that would have ordinarily barred any individuals from receiving refugee status.
Trump administration figures and anti-immigration advocates have alleged — without evidence — that the Biden administration improperly prioritized speed of processing refugee applications and high admission numbers over the need to properly vet applicants, particularly those from majority-Muslim countries such as Afghanistan.
Refugee advocates slammed the potential move, arguing that such immigrants are among the most vulnerable to have sought shelter in the U.S. and already have passed through a rigorous, typically multi-year process to verify they have credible fears of persecution.
Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, said in a statement that the “unprecedented and cruel” move by the administration forces individuals who have “already passed the most exhaustive vetting processes in the world — multiple agencies, biometric checks, layered security reviews” after surviving persecution “back into instability” at the hands of the U.S. government.
He added that the Trump administration appears poised to revoke refugee status for “thousands” of Afghans — including those who assisted the U.S. and allied forces in their two-decade fight against the Taliban — by falsely claiming that they fabricated their stories of persecution.
“That is not just wrong; it’s defamatory and reckless. It destabilizes families who trusted the United States, breaks faith with wartime allies, and damages U.S. national-security interests by signaling to the world that America’s promises are conditional,” he said.
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In a statement, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin characterized the unheard of decision to review hundreds of thousands of refugee admissions retroactively as a needed corrective after the Biden administration “accelerated refugee admissions from terror and gang-prone countries, prioritizing sheer numbers over rigorous vetting and strict adherence to legal requirements.”
“This reckless approach undermined the integrity of our immigration system and jeopardized the safety and security of the American people. Corrective action is now being taken to ensure those who are present in the United States deserve to be here,” she said.
Since Trump returned to power this past January, his administration has largely shut down the refugee admissions process except for a select few groups hailing from majority-white countries.
Earlier this year, the president issued an order setting a refugee cap of 7,500 people for the coming year, with a preference for white Afrikaners from South Africa.
Trump has repeatedly and baselessly claimed the group is facing a genocide in South Africa, despite officials in that country, data, courts, and Afrikaner groups saying no such genocide is under way.
The administration is reportedly mulling other provisions that would have the effect of largely favoring white refugees, including a proposal to favor Europeans and English-speakers.
Under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department has also signaled an intent to give priority for resettlement to far-right and white nationalists activists from European nations such as Germany, where extremist and ultranationalist parties are restricted or banned under laws meant to prevent a resurgence of the fascist movement which led the country to start the Second World War and commit a genocide which wiped out six million Jews from Europe’s population.
Outside of the refugee program, the White House has taken steps to reduce immigration protections for the most vulnerable, including canceling Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from a variety of unstable and war-torn nations, most recently this week for individuals from Myanmar.
The administration also canceled contracts with refugee resettlement providers earlier this year.
Naturalized citizens also fear their status may be under threat, given the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempts to end birthright citizenship.
The moves follow similar restrictions during Trump’s first term, when refugee admissions sunk to what was then an all-time low.
