167 Jewish Groups Urge President to Admit “at least 95,000 refugees” in FY2020

First they want the 30,000 they believe they were promised for this year (FY19).

See my post yesterday where I explain we are likely to reach that number by September 30th.

However, in a recent letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo they say they want 95,000 next year.

Here is the news at from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs:

167 Jewish Organizations Urge U.S. to Meet Refugee Goal

JCPA, a network of 125 local Jewish community relations councils and 17 national Jewish agencies, has joined with 166 national, state, and local Jewish organizations and institutions in urging the United States to meet the refugee resettlement admissions goal of 30,000 for fiscal year 2019 and to return to historic norms next year.

In a letter delivered to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday (August 7th), the group explained, “The United States has historically distinguished itself as a beacon of hope and as a safe haven for those who most need it. For nearly 40 years, the refugee admissions target averaged 95,000 per year, with actual admissions averaging 80,000 refugees per year. Despite this, the Administration set the admissions ceiling to a historic low of 30,000 refugees in FY19. Resettling zero refugees in the U.S. in FY2020 would effectively gut the refugee resettlement program, violate our values as Jews and Americans, and abdicate the American promise of freedom and opportunity.”

Not mentioned in the short news story is the request for the CEILING for 2020 to be set at 95,000.  See the letter with its 167 signatures.  This is a paragraph from near the end.

We urge the Department of State, in partnership with the other implementing agencies, to restore our country’s refugee admissions cap to at least 95,000 for FY2020. The values of our nation and the safety and well-being of tens of thousands of refugees and their families depend on it.

Don’t miss the list of those that signed the letter, here.

What do they mean by restore the cap to 95,000?

In the last ten years (mostly Obama years!) the cap was no where near 95,000 until Obama set it at 110,000 in September 2017 as he was getting ready to vacate the Oval Office.

Why didn’t he set it at 110,000 or even 95,000 in his previous opportunities to set the CEILING?

I didn’t see these same groups attacking the sainted Obama for his much lower caps in his previous 7 years in office!

They make it sound like we have been admitting that extreme number in the years prior to the arrival of Donald Trump. We have not!

See the last ten years of CEILING data at Wrapsnet and then the actual number of admissions.

And, remember this: in the early years of the refugee program which began in 1980, we were not being invaded by tens of thousands of asylum seekers (wannabe refugees) at our borders as we are today.