WASHINGTON Despite repeated efforts by President Trump to curtail refugee resettlements, the State Department this week quietly lifted the departments restriction on the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States.
The result could be a near doubling of refugees entering the country, from about 830 people a week in the first three weeks of this month to well over 1,500 people per week by next month, according to refugee advocates. Tens of thousands of refugees are waiting to come to the United States.
The State Departments decision was conveyed in an email on Thursday to the private agencies in countries around the world that help refugees manage the nearly two-year application process needed to enter the United States.
In her email, Jennifer L. Smith, a department official, wrote that the refugee groups could begin bringing people to the United States unconstrained by the weekly quotas that were in place.
Although it came the same day as an appeals court ruling that rejected government efforts to limit travel to the United States from six predominantly Muslim nations, the move by the State Department had nothing to do with the court ruling.
The departments quotas on refugee resettlement were largely the result of budget constraints imposed by Congress in a temporary spending measure passed last fall. But when Congress passed a spending bill this month that funded the government for the rest of the fiscal year, the law did not include any restrictions on refugee admissions.
A State Department spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said the department had consulted the Department of Justice about its refugee quotas and had decided to adjust them.
President Trump has sought to lower the ceiling on the number of refugees annually allowed in the country to 50,000 from 110,000. Mr. Trumps executive orders on immigration, the first of which he issued on Jan. 27, also sought to suspend all refugee admissions for at least four months. Federal judges stayed those orders, but the confusion over them has contributed to a falloff in refugees entering the United States.
While 13,255 refugees were admitted in August, that number plunged to just 2,070 in March. So far during the 2017 fiscal year, 45,732 people have been admitted, just a few thousand short of Mr. Trumps proposed cap.
Refugee groups now predict that entries into the United States could increase so rapidly that the total number of refugees admitted by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, could exceed 70,000. That is well below the 84,994 refugees admitted in fiscal year 2016, but not by nearly as much as many advocates had feared.
Refugee advocates were delighted by the State Departments decision.
This is long overdue, but were very happy, said Mark Hetfield, president and chief executive of HIAS, an immigrant aid society...
