President Joe Biden abruptly reversed himself on how many refugees the United States would accept this year, after a political firestorm erupted when the White House announced it was retaining the ceiling of 15,000 refugees set by his predecessor Donald Trump. But the White House delayed issuing the formal “Emergency Presidential Determination” until Friday, April 16, stalling thousands of refugees who had scheduled flights to the United States. The statement reaffirmed that a ceiling of 125,000 would be in effect for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1. She said that while a new ceiling would be set May 15, this was unlikely to be as high as the 62,500 promised in February. The reversal touched off a round of finger-pointing within the Biden administration, with leaks to the press blaming Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, for the announcement that Biden would keep the Trump ceiling.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 19, 2021 02:03 UTC