WASHINGTON – The State Department says the U.S. refugee admissions program won’t be suspended until next week and has told resettlement agencies to continue scheduling arrivals through then.
The department said Thursday that arrivals can continue until July 12, when a cap of 50,000 refugee admissions for the current fiscal is expected to be reached. Once the cap is hit, only refugees with a close relationship with a person or business in the United States will be eligible for admission. As of Thursday morning, admissions for fiscal 2017 stood at 49,501.
After the Supreme Court last month partially upheld the Trump administration’s travel ban for citizens of six mainly Muslim countries and portions of a suspension in refugee admissions, resettlement agencies were initially told to schedule arrivals only through July 6.
MATTHEW LEE
