Following the Trump administration’s move last year to reduce the number of refugees who can legally enter the United States, Vermont is seeing fewer refugees settle in-state, and a new proposal to further lower that cap will likely continue to hamper local immigrant resettlement efforts.
This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the U.S. is planning to cap the number of refugees permitted to enter the country at 30,000 in fiscal year 2019, a drop from this year’s already scaled-back 45,000 refugee cap. During President Barack Obama’s last year in office, his administration committed to resettling 110,000 refugees, with about 10,000 coming from Syria.
While the current federal fiscal year doesn’t end until Sept. 30, as of August, Vermont had only resettled 133 refugees, according to Denise Lamoureux, the state’s refugee coordinator. In the last fiscal year, the state resettled 235 refugees.
“It affected everyone, every state in the nation. The arrivals slowed down tremendously,” Lamoureux said of Trump’s cap.
Now, the Trump administration is proposing to reduce the cap to its lowest level since 1980, when the nation’s refugee program was created. Pompeo said Monday that the administration plans on limiting the program as the country grapples with 800,000 asylum cases which demand “renewed focus and prioritization.”
“This year’s refugee ceiling reflects the substantial increase in the number of individuals seeking asylum in our country, leading to a massive backlog of outstanding asylum cases and greater public expense,” Pompeo said, adding “the United States will focus on addressing the humanitarian protection cases of those already in the country.”
Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said it’s possible the administration will consult with Congress in the coming weeks and raise the cap.
“We know that the global need is much higher and we’re facing a humanitarian crisis with refugees larger than any in our lifetimes,” Blake said.
Amila Merdzanovic, director of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, a field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, was not available for an interview Wednesday.
In keeping with many other parts of the country, Lamoureux said Vermont is no longer seeing refugee arrivals from countries including Syria, Iraq and Somalia. Most of the refugees the state resettled in recent months have been Congolese, she said.
“We do believe that it’s a benefit to the state of Vermont as well to have … new refugees coming here,” Lamoureux said. “We certainly hope that we can maintain a good level of arrivals so that the program is healthy and that the capacity is maintained.”
In 2016, the State Department designated Rutland as a resettlement site for up to 100 refugees, but ultimately, only 14 moved to the city, after Trump took office and issued executive orders which stalled immigration efforts.
Chloé White, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, slammed the Trump administration’s immigration policy, noting that refugees have benefited Vermont’s business community and participated in civic organizations.
“It’s heartbreaking that people won’t be able to find these same types of opportunities because they’re being blocked by a xenophobic administration,” she said.
Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has championed refugee resettlement as a tool to turn around Vermont’s struggling rural economy and aging population.
Last week, during a debate with Christine Hallquist, a Democrat challenging him in the general election, Scott said he has reached out to the Trump administration to ask if it has more refugees to send to Vermont.
“I know that they’ve cut back on some the refugee program,” he said, “but if they were looking for a new home for these refugees, we would take them because there are lot of communities that would enjoy that and it would be very helpful to us in many, many different ways.”
In a statement responding to questions about the federal government’s plan to reduce refugee arrivals, Rebecca Kelley, a spokesperson for Scott, said the governor “has, and will continue to, advocate to keep Vermont’s refugee resettlement program at its previous target statewide levels.”
