Refugee Admissions and Resettlement Policy 
Released: 2018-12-18T00:00:00

Background and Definitions

The admission of refugees to the United States and their resettlement here are authorized by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended by the Refugee Act of 1980. The 1980 Act had two basic purposes: (1) to provide a uniform procedure for refugee admissions; and (2) to authorize federal assistance to resettle refugees and promote their self-sufficiency. The intent of the legislation was to end an ad hoc approach to refugee admissions and resettlement that had characterized U.S. refugee policy since World War II.

Under the INA, a refugee is a person who is outside his or her country and who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. In special circumstances, a refugee also may be a person who is within his or her country and who is persecuted or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Excluded from the INA definition of a refugee is any person who participated in the persecution of another.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) of the Department of State (DOS) coordinates and manages the U.S. refugee program, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) makes final determinations about eligibility for admission. Refugees are processed and admitted to the United States from abroad. Separate provision is made in the INA for the granting of asylum on a case-by-case basis to aliens who are physically present in the United States or who arrive in the United States and who meet the definition of a refugee. After one year in refugee status in the United States, refugees are required to apply to adjust to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status.

Refugee Admissions

By law, the annual number of refugee admissions and the allocation of these numbers by region of the world are set by the President after consultation with Congress. Each year, the President submits a report to Congress, known as the consultation document , which contains the Administration's proposed worldwide refugee ceiling and regional allocations for the upcoming fiscal year. Following congressional consultations on the Administration's proposal, the President issues a Presidential Determination setting the refugee numbers for that year. Table 1 shows refugee admissions ceilings and regional allocations for FY2008-FY2019.

The U.S. refugee program was greatly impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the aftermath of those attacks, a review of refugee-related security procedures was undertaken, refugee admissions were briefly suspended, and enhanced security measures were implemented. As a result of these and other factors, refugee admissions, which had totaled about 70,000 in FY2001, plunged to historically low levels in the years following the attacks. In FY2002, for example, actual admissions totaled 27,131.

Admissions subsequently rebounded, as shown in Table 1 , exceeding 70,000 in each of FY2009 and FY2010. As also shown in Table 1 , however, there were significantly fewer admissions in FY2011 (56,424) and FY2012 (58,238). The FY2013 consultation document attributed the shortfalls in refugee arrivals in FY2011 and FY2012 largely to new security requirements.

Refugee admissions increased in FY2013, and the FY2014 consultation document offered the following explanation for the increase:

Refugee arrivals in FY 2013 are up sharply from the previous two years thanks to the concerted efforts of the many partners involved in U.S. resettlement... This success was made possible in part by better synchronization of security and medical checks for refugee families as well as investments in [the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees'] ability to refer refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

In FY2013, FY2014, and FY2015, refugee admissions fell just under each year's 70,000 ceiling. The FY2016 refugee ceiling was 85,000, and actual admissions that year were just below that number.

The refugee ceiling for FY2017 was set at 110,000 by President Barack Obama. However, President Donald Trump issued two successive executive orders in January 2017 and March 2017 that "proclaim[ed] that the entry of more than 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017 would be detrimental to the interests of the United States." The March 2017 executive order, which revoked its predecessor, also directed the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to suspend the refugee admissions program for a period of 120 days. During the 120-day period, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with Secretary of Homeland Security, was tasked with reviewing refugee admissions procedures. On June 26, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, pending the resolution of ongoing litigation concerning the lawfulness of the March 2017 executive order, the provisions establishing the FY2017 50,000 refugee admissions limit and the 120-day refugee program suspension could take effect for all individuals except for those "who can credibly claim a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States." The 120-day suspension was in effect from June 26, 2017, until its expiration on October 24, 2017. Actual refugee admissions in FY2017 totaled 53,716.

During the suspension of the refugee admissions program, President Trump set the FY2018 refugee ceiling at 45,000, lower than the ceiling for any prior year. The FY2018 consultation document explained that DHS had decided to prioritize the processing of asylum cases over refugee cases that year:

Delays in the timely processing of asylum applications are detrimental to legitimate asylum seekers. Furthermore, while a series of security checks are initiated when an asylum application is filed, lingering backlogs can be exploited and used to undermine the security and integrity of the country's asylum system. As such, in considering how to allocate its available resources for humanitarian work in FY 2018, DHS/USCIS is prioritizing adjudication of asylum cases to address this growing backlog, while still providing a portion of its resources to continue refugee processing activities.

On October 24, 2017, President Trump issued another executive order on refugee admissions. It provided for the resumption of the refugee admissions program subject to certain conditions. The executive order referenced "special measures" that would be applied to "certain categories of refugees whose entry continues to pose potential threats to the security and welfare of the United States." It also indicated that the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security would continue to "assess and address any risks posed by particular refugees." To this end, the executive order directed the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to determine within 90 days of the date of the order, and annually after that, whether any steps taken to address the risks posed by the admission of any category of refugees should be modified or terminated. The order further authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement any such modifications or terminations.

A DOS fact sheet issued the same day as the executive order explained that DOS, DHS, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had "concluded that additional in-depth review is needed with respect to refugees of 11 nationalities previously identified as potentially posing a higher risk to the United States." According to the fact sheet, admissions of prospective refugees from these 11 unspecified countries would occur on a case-by-case basis during the 90-day review period specified in the executive order.

In January 2018, DHS announced that as a result of the 90-day review it was putting in place "additional security enhancements and recommendations to strengthen the integrity of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program," including the following:

Additional screening for certain nationals of high-risk countries. Administering the [U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] in a more risk-based manner when considering the overall refugee admissions ceiling, regional allocations, and the groups of applicants considered for resettlement. A periodic review and update of the refugee high-risk country list and selection criteria.

According to the DHS announcement, these measures "are designed to keep nefarious and fraudulent actors from exploiting the refugee program to enter the United States."

Refugee admissions for FY2018 totaled 22,491, about half the FY2018 ceiling of 45,000. These FY2018 admissions represented the lowest annual level of refugee arrivals in the United States since the establishment of the U.S. refugee admissions program in 1980.

The refugee ceiling for FY2019 is 30,000. The FY2019 consultation document offered the following explanation for setting the refugee ceiling at that level, the lowest in the history of the refugee admissions program:

This ceiling takes into account the operational realities associated with security measures to protect national security and public safety, as well as the need to conduct credible fear screenings of aliens seeking asylum at our borders and address the backlog of affirmative asylum cases.

FY2019 Refugee Ceiling and Allocations

On October 4, 2018, President Trump signed the Presidential Determination setting the FY2019 worldwide refugee ceiling and regional allocations. The FY2019 refugee ceiling is 30,000, the same as proposed in the FY2019 consultation document.

As shown in Table 1 , the FY2019 refugee ceiling of 30,000 is allocated among the regions of the world. The regional allocations are intended to cover previously approved refugees in the pipeline as well as new cases. Unlike in some past years, there is no unallocated reserve in FY2019. An unallocated reserve is to be used if, and where, a need develops for refugee slots in excess of the allocated numbers. Unallocated numbers have been used regularly in recent years (see Table 1 ).

The FY2019 consultation document, unlike its predecessors, does not identify the nationalities of the refugees expected to be resettled in the United States. Instead, it describes uncertainty surrounding the home countries of FY2019 refugee arrivals:

Given the lengthy processing required, it is likely that refugees referred to [U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] will not be admitted to the United States until a subsequent year. It is therefore impossible to determine exactly which countries will be the sources of refugees admitted to the United States in FY 2019.

The FY2019 regional allocations can be compared to FY2018 and FY2017 regional admissions levels, as follows:

Africa has been allocated 11,000 refugee admissions numbers for FY2019. FY2018 admissions totaled 10,459; FY2017 admissions totaled 20,232. East Asia's FY2019 allocation is 4,000. FY2018 admissions totaled 3,668; FY2017 admissions totaled 5,173. Europe and Central Asia have a combined FY2019 allocation of 3,000 refugee admissions. FY2018 admissions for this region totaled 3,612; FY2017 admissions totaled 5,205. The FY2019 allocation for Latin America and the Caribbean is 3,000. FY2018 admissions totaled 955; FY2017 admissions totaled 1,688. The Near East/South Asia allocation for FY2019 is 9,000. FY2018 admissions totaled 3,797; FY2017 admissions totaled 21,418.

Refugee Processing Priorities

PRM is responsible for processing refugee cases. Generally, it arranges for a nongovernmental organization (NGO), an international organization, or U.S. embassy contractors to manage a Resettlement Support Center (RSC) that assists in refugee processing. RSC staff conduct pre-screening interviews of prospective refugees and prepare cases for submission to USCIS, which handles refugee adjudications. Refugee processing is conducted through a system of three priorities for admission. These priorities provide access to U.S. resettlement consideration, and are separate and distinct from whether such persons qualify for refugee status.

Priority 1 covers refugees for whom resettlement seems to be the appropriate durable solution, who are referred to the U.S. refugee program by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a U.S. embassy, or a designated NGO. Such persons often have compelling protection needs, and may be in danger of attack or of being returned to the country they fled. All nationalities are eligible for this priority.

Priority 2 covers groups of special humanitarian concern to the United States. It includes specific groups that may be defined by their nationalities, clans, ethnicities, or other characteristics. Unlike Priority 1 cases, individuals falling under Priority 2 are able to access the U.S. refugee program without a UNHCR, embassy, or NGO referral. Some P-2 programs, such as the program for certain former Soviet nationals (see " Lautenberg Amendment and Specter Amendment "), process applicants in their country of origin .

Some Priority 2 groups are processed outside their country of origin. These include Burmese in refugee camps in Thailand. Another P-2 group, Iraqis associated with the United States, is eligible for in-country processing in Iraq as well as processing outside that country.

Priority 3 covers family reunification cases. Refugee applications under Priority 3 are based upon an affidavit of relationship (AOR) filed by an eligible relative in the United States. The Priority 3 program is limited to designated nationalities. For FY2019, Priority 3 processing is available to nationals of 15 countries. Individuals falling under Priority 3, like those falling under Priority 2, are able to access the U.S. refugee program without a UNHCR, embassy, or NGO referral.

The Priority 3 program has changed over the years. Since FY2004, qualifying family members have been the spouses, unmarried children under age 21, and parents of persons who were admitted to the United States as refugees or granted asylum. In October 2008, the U.S. refugee program stopped accepting applications under Priority 3. Earlier in 2008, processing of Priority 3 cases was suspended in certain locations in Africa "due to indications of extremely high rates of fraud in claimed family relationships identified through pilot DNA testing."

The Priority 3 program resumed in October 2012 with a new AOR form and requirement for DNA evidence of certain claimed biological parent-child relationships. To file an AOR, the U.S.-based relative must be at least age 18 and must file within five years of being granted asylum or admitted to the United States as a refugee.

Refugee Adjudications

The Secretary of DHS has discretionary authority to admit refugees to the United States. USCIS is responsible for adjudicating refugee cases. To be eligible for admission to the United States as a refugee, an individual must meet the INA definition of a refugee, not be firmly resettled in another country, be determined to be of special humanitarian concern to the United States, and be admissible to the United States. In the past, the majority of refugee adjudications were conducted by USCIS officers on temporary duty from domestic asylum offices. Today, these adjudications are handled by USCIS officers in the Refugee Corps.

Admissibility of Refugees

To be admitted to the United States, a prospective refugee must be admissible under immigration law. The INA sets forth various grounds of inadmissibility, which include health-related grounds, security-related grounds, public charge (i.e., indigence), and lack of proper documentation. Some inadmissibility grounds (public charge, lack of proper documentation) are not applicable to refugees. Others can be waived for humanitarian purposes, to assure family unity, or when it is otherwise in the public interest. Of particular relevance to the admission of refugees are certain health-related and security-related grounds of inadmissibility.

Under the INA health-related grounds of inadmissibility, an alien who is determined, in accordance with Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations, to have a communicable disease of public health significance is inadmissible. In past years, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was defined to be one of these diseases, although HIV-infected refugees could apply for a waiver. In 2008, Congress amended the INA to eliminate the reference to HIV infection as a health-related ground of inadmissibility. And effective January 4, 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of HHS amended its regulations on the medical examination of aliens to remove HIV infection from the definition of a "communicable disease of public health significance." The CDC further amended its regulations on the medical examination of aliens, effective March 28, 2016, to revise the definition of a "communicable disease of public health significance" and make other changes to the health screening process.

Since 1990, the security-related grounds of inadmissibility in the INA have expressly included terrorism-related grounds. Over the years, the terrorism-related grounds have been amended to lower the threshold for how substantial, apparent, and immediate an alien's support for a terrorist activity or organization may be for the alien to be rendered inadmissible. Among the current terrorism-related grounds, an alien is generally inadmissible for engaging in terrorist activity if he or she gives any "material support," such as a safe house, transportation, communications, or funds, to a terrorist organization or any of its members or to a person engaged in terrorist activity. The Secretary of State or the DHS Secretary, after consultation with the other and the Attorney General, may exercise discretionary waiver authority over certain terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility. Both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of DHS have used this authority to grant exemptions from the terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds to certain categories of individuals and for certain types of support.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, specified groups that, for purposes of the INA terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility, are not to be considered terrorist organizations on the basis of past acts. Thus, a prospective refugee who was a member of, or provided support to, one of these groups would not be inadmissible on the basis of those actions. More broadly, the Consolidated Appropriations Act expanded the discretionary authority of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of DHS to grant waivers of the terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility generally. Measures subsequently enacted in 2008 and 2014 limited the application of the INA's terrorism-related provisions with respect to other specific groups.

Security Screening

To be admissible to the United States under the INA security-related grounds of inadmissibility discussed above, a prospective refugee must clear all required security checks. According to an August 2018 USCIS fact sheet on refugee security screening:

USCIS has the sole discretion to approve an application for refugee status and only does so after it has obtained and cleared the results of all required security checks for the principal applicant, as well as any derivative family members included on their case. Just as DOS commonly denies visas, USCIS also routinely denies refugee cases, including for reasons of national security.

The fact sheet summarizes the security screening process, as follows:

[U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] screening includes both biometric and biographic checks, which occur at multiple stages throughout the process, including immediately after the preliminary RSC interview, before a refugee's departure to the United States, and on arrival in the U.S. at a port of entry.

The March 2017 executive order issued by President Trump called for a review of U.S. refugee admissions processes to determine what additional procedures were needed to ensure that prospective refugees did not pose threats to the United States. The October 2017 executive order noted that the results of that review would, among other benefits, "enhance the ability of our systems to check biometric and biographic information against a broad range of threat information contained in various Federal watchlists and databases." (For further information about these executive orders, see " Refugee Admissions .")

The FY2019 consultation document noted that prospective refugees "undergo more thorough screening than ever before." It further explained:

The U.S. government has increased the amount of data it collects on refugee applicants, and more applicants now are subject to higher levels of security screening.

Lautenberg Amendment and Specter Amendment

The "Lautenberg Amendment" was originally enacted as part of the FY1990 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. It required the Attorney General to designate categories of former Soviet and Indochinese nationals for whom less evidence would be needed to prove refugee status, and provided for adjustment to permanent resident status of certain Soviet and Indochinese nationals granted parole after being denied refugee status. To be eligible to apply for refugee status under the special provision, an individual had to have close family in the United States. Applicants under the Lautenberg standard were required to prove that they were members of a protected category with a credible, but not necessarily individual, fear of persecution. By contrast, the INA requires prospective refugees to establish a well-founded fear of persecution on an individual basis.

The Lautenberg Amendment has been regularly extended in appropriations acts, although there have often been gaps between extensions. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004, in addition to extending the amendment through FY2004, amended the Lautenberg Amendment to add a new provision known as the "Specter Amendment." The Specter Amendment required the designation of categories of Iranian nationals, specifically religious minorities, for whom less evidence would be needed to prove refugee status. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, extended the Lautenberg Amendment through September 30, 2018. As of the date of this report, the Lautenberg Amendment has not been enacted for FY2019.

Refugee Resettlement Assistance

The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), administers a transitional assistance program for temporarily dependent refugees, asylees, Cuban/Haitian entrants, and other specified humanitarian groups. Since its establishment in 1980, the refugee resettlement program has been justified on the grounds that the admission of refugees is a federal decision, entailing some federal responsibility. Unlike immigrants who enter through family or employment ties, refugees are admitted on humanitarian grounds, and there is no requirement that they demonstrate economic self-sufficiency.

For FY2018, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, which included appropriations for the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education, and related agencies, provided $1.865 billion for ORR programs. This funding was supplemented by transferred funds from within HHS, for final FY2018 funding of $2.051 billion. Table 2 details refugee resettlement funding for FY2009-FY2018.

ORR-funded refugee assistance activities include transitional and medical services, social services to help refugees and other specified humanitarian groups (referred to collectively as "refugees" below) become socially and economically self-sufficient, and targeted assistance for impacted areas. As indicated in Table 2 , the refugee social services, targeted assistance, and preventive health programs have been combined into the refugee support services program.

Transitional/cash and medical services accounts for a greater portion of the ORR annual budget than any other activity for refugees. (Several of the ORR programs—unaccompanied alien children, victims of trafficking, and victims of torture—are not refugee programs.) In most cases, this assistance is administered by states and provided in the form of refugee cash assistance (RCA) and refugee medical assistance (RMA). RCA and RMA are intended to help needy refugees who are ineligible to receive benefits from mainstream federal assistance programs. This assistance is currently available for eight months after entry. RMA benefits are based on the state's Medicaid program, and RCA payments are based on the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) payment to a family unit of the same size.

The ORR program was significantly affected by the 1996 welfare reform act and subsequent amendments. Prior to this legislation, refugees who otherwise met the requirements of federal public assistance programs were immediately and indefinitely eligible to participate in them just like U.S. citizens. Now, refugees are subject to time limits. Table 3 summarizes the time limits on refugee eligibility for four major public assistance programs.

Appendix. Refugee Admissions by Region