The Missing Immigration Document: Where Is The DHS Refugee Report?

Forbes

28-04-2025

A sign outside the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City. The Trump administration appears ... More to have missed an immigration deadline for a report on restarting the U.S. refugee admissions program. (Photo by: Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Trump administration appears to have missed an immigration deadline for a report on restarting the U.S. refugee admissions program. An executive order issued on January 20, 2025, suspended refugee admissions but called for a report within 90 days to consider resuming the admissions. Analysts believe it is possible asking for a report was not intended to evaluate the refugee program but to give the impression the administration was engaged in a genuine analysis. Refugee organizations criticize the lack of transparency.
Refugees are admitted to the United States only after undergoing extensive screening outside the country. Security experts note refugees are the most vetted individuals to enter America. The president sets the annual refugee level in consultation with Congress. The United States has a long history of admitting refugees since it coincides with America's tradition of respecting human rights while serving U.S. foreign policy interests.
During Donald Trump's first term, his administration reduced refugee admissions to the lowest since the Refugee Act of 1980. After working with refugee resettlement agencies largely dismantled during Donald Trump's first term, Biden officials surpassed 100,000 refugee admissions in FY 2024. According to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis, 'Real earnings for refugees increased by 70% in the 10 years after arriving in the United States, showing refugees integrate and make economic progress in America.'
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump issued an executive order that announced: 'I therefore direct that entry into the United States of refugees under the USRAP [U.S. Refugee Admissions Program] be suspended . . . until a finding is made in accordance with section 4 of this order.' The only exception: 'The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit aliens to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the entry of such aliens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.'
While there are approximately 44 million refugees in the world, the only refugees Donald Trump has indicated he wants to assist are white South Africans. 'More than 30 applicants have already been approved,' reports Reuters. Admitting only white people as refugees has raised obvious criticism.
The president can resume refugee admissions anytime. However, the executive order contains an implicit trigger in the form of a report from the Secretary of Homeland Security to the president within 90 days of the executive order, which would have been April 20, 2025. That date has passed, and the Trump administration has not announced whether it received the report or if it contains recommendations.
'Within 90 days of this order, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit a report to the president through the Homeland Security Advisor regarding whether resumption of entry of refugees into the United States under the USRAP [United States Refugee Admissions Program] would be in the interests of the United States,' according to the executive order. 'The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall submit further reports every 90 days thereafter until I determine that resumption of the USRAP is in the interests of the United States.' (Emphasis added.)
Trump's Homeland Security Advisor is Stephen Miller, an opponent of refugee admissions and the likely author of the executive order suspending the refugee program. Analysts note that by arranging for the report to go through him, Miller can ensure few or no refugees are admitted to the United States, except for white South Africans.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the State Department responded to a request to comment on the refugee report's status.
Refugee organizations sued the Trump administration and achieved some success. However, an April 21, 2025, ruling narrowed the scope of how many refugees may be admitted to the United States following the executive order that suspend refugee admissions. In Pacito et al. v. Donald Trump, the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit implies a court cannot require the Trump administration to admit more than 100,000 refugees, citing deference to the president's 'broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States' in the Supreme Court case Trump v. Hawaii. According to the court, the government represents that 'almost 130,000 individuals were conditionally approved for refugee approval before January 20, 2025.'
'Accordingly, the government's motion to clarify the scope of our previous Order . . . is GRANTED,' according to the decision. 'The stay request is denied to the extent that the district court's preliminary injunction order applies to individuals who met the following conditions on or before January 20, 2025: (1) the individual had an approved refugee application authorizing Customs and Border Protection to admit the individual 'conditionally as a refugee upon arrival at the port within four months of the date the refugee application was approved,' … (2) the individual was cleared by USCIS for travel to the United States; and (3) the individual had arranged and confirmable travel plans to the United States.'
The court ruled the 'preliminary injunction remains in effect for these individuals only, and government must resume their processing, facilitation of travel to the United States, admission, and provision of resettlement benefits after admission.'
It is unclear how many refugees the ruling would allow to enter and be resettled in the United States, but it is expected to be considerably less than the 125,000 ceiling set for FY 2025.
The International Refugee Assistance Project filed the lawsuit on behalf of Church World Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Lutheran Community Services Northwest.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks to staff for the first time at Department of ... More Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C, on January 28, 2025. (Photo by MANUEL BALCE CENETA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
'At World Relief, we've been overwhelmed by the ways that churches and individuals have stepped up to provide support for recently resettled refugees in the wake of the Trump administration's abrupt termination of funding for those resettled in the final days of the Biden administration,' said Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy & policy at World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization. Contributions have exceeded $10 million.
'Part of evangelicals' support for refugee resettlement is based on an awareness that most refugees resettled to the U.S. in recent years have been fellow Christians, including many who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus,' said Soerens. 'Evangelicals are very troubled by the reality that suspending refugee resettlement indefinitely would mean closing the door on these persecuted fellow believers.' The administration's threat to deport Afghan Christians back to the Taliban in recent weeks has raised concerns in Christian communities in the United States.
'It's important to be clear that Christians are not only concerned with fellow Christians,' said Soerens. 'While religious persecution is, of course, deeply troubling to American Christians, we believe that all people, regardless of religion, are made in the Image of God with inherent dignity and worth, so we want our government to do whatever it can to protect people fleeing persecution whether that's based on their faith, their race, their political opinion, their service to the U.S. military in Afghanistan or any other factor.' He cited the Bible and said that 'Jesus' command to love our neighbors was elaborated upon with a story of a Good Samaritan who cared for a vulnerable traveler in need who happened to be of a different religion.'
Timothy Young of Global Refuge is disappointed that despite court rulings, the Trump administration has not taken action to admit refugees conditionally approved before the program was suspended. 'It is also unclear if the 90-day report by the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security has been submitted to the White House for consideration of the program's resumption,' he said. 'Unfortunately, this lack of transparency deepens concerns about whether legal mandates and procedural norms are being upheld in a meaningful way.'
Young said that refugee resettlement is a lifeline for families fleeing persecution and violence, many of whom have waited years to complete exhaustive screening and security vetting. 'Thousands of refugee families sold their belongings, vacated temporary housing, and prepared for imminent travel to the United States, only to be left in indefinite limbo with no clear explanation. The human cost of these delays is devastating, especially for Afghan allies, the religiously persecuted and others with no alternative path to safety.'
'What's at stake is more than programmatic continuity, but America's standing as a humanitarian leader,' he said.
The Trump administration's lack of transparency over the refugee report leads analysts and advocates to believe it was not intended to restart refugee admissions but to justify keeping the door to refugees securely closed.