“We will set our annual refugee admissions at 125,000, and seek to raise it over time.”
The promise
Biden pledged to raise the U.S. refugee admissions ceiling to 125,000 per year to restore America’s tradition of refugee resettlement. Early in his administration, he reinstated higher refugee targets and reversed the historically low caps set under the prior administration. The move was intended to re-establish U.S. leadership in refugee protection and humanitarian commitments. Resettlement agencies, refugee advocates, and immigration stakeholders view this as a key shift. While logistical, legal, and capacity challenges persist, the intended target and policy shift have been realized to a significant degree, and this promise is broadly judged as kept by fact-checkers.
