In response to President Trump’s decision to slash refugee admissions to 45,000 US, Abby Maxman President of Oxfam America made the following statement:
“Oxfam condemns President Trump’s decision, in the midst of the worst refugee crisis of our time, to slash refugee admissions for the coming year to just 45,000, a fraction of what the United States is capable of resettling. This new limit is unacceptable and we urge the President to go back and try again to set an acceptable limit of at least 75,000 refugees. Anything less represents a failure of American leadership and is an insult to the world’s most vulnerable people.
The new limit marks a dramatic and devastating reduction for target refugee admissions. Since the program began in 1980, Presidents from both parties have set more robust targets, the average being 95,000. Yet with this announcement President Trump turned his back on this bipartisan tradition, nearly halving that number. Even more worrisome is the fact that President Trump may not even meet this disastrously low target given the fact that the administration has dramatically slowed its refugee admissions processing since coming into office.
As Americans we must open our minds, hearts, and borders to vulnerable people. A cornerstone of the founding values of the US was to offer oppressed people refuge from violence and persecution. To forsake our founding values and these vulnerable people, would be to forsake what it means to be American.”
/ENDS
Notes to editor:
There are currently 22 million refugees, 1.2 million of whom need to be resettled into countries around the world in the next year.
