New offices and personnel in Qatar and Turkey will support previously established international U.S. Refugee Admissions Programs. The expansion will beef up infrastructure and help to increase USCIS "refugee processing circuit rides." Circuit rides are asylum interview locations. With the "opening of the Doha Field Office on May 7, 2024, and the Ankara Field Office on May 9, 2024, USCIS will have 11 international field offices. Other international field offices include Beijing; Guangzhou, China; Guatemala City; Havana; Mexico City; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras."
Qatar and Turkey are predominantly Muslim nations whose mores and customs vastly differ from those in Western cultures. In many cases, promoting migration from countries like these will likely impact national security because of sparse documentation. In addition, fluid assimilation with U.S. culture in these migrant populations can be enormously challenging for migrants and the communities in which they settle.
Typically, immigrants coming to the U.S. are expected to assimilate, embrace, and adapt to the prevailing American culture and mores. However, it is becoming increasingly common for some immigrants to acculturate rather than assimilate in some countries. "No-go zones" are more common in large cities in European countries like Paris and London because of the propensity to acculturate, especially in Muslim populations.
The number of Muslims in the U.S. continues to grow but remains a small percentage of the total population. Acculturation may soon be a reality in the U.S. because the Biden administration continues to invite massive numbers of immigrants from cultures who typically do not understand or embrace our way of life.
The Biden Administration Has Dramatically Expanded Migration to U.S.
The 125,000 refugees per year ceiling has been operational for a few years. However, the difference is that the ceiling is typically not reached. This administration will come close to fulfilling its ceiling and may even meet it. At the beginning of Biden's term, refugee admissions were relatively low, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), at roughly 400 per month. Those numbers have increased dramatically to around 7,000 a month and are expected to hit 10,000 a month in FY 2024.
The opening of new locations for these circuit rides is just one of the reasons for the increase in refugees. In addition, the Biden administration has fostered other transformative reforms to promote and encourage migration to the U.S. One of the reforms, known as Welcome Corps, has transferred control over the resettlement process to private entities and private individuals, allowing them to "select their own 'refugees' and future American citizens."
According to CIS, "those chosen do not even need to be "refugees" (i.e., hold refugee status per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) Refugee Status Determination (RSD)), let alone refugees in 'need of resettlement' as per UNHCR's prioritization." In other words, the Biden administration has introduced game-changing programs and policies for the expeditious processing of refugees, including the expansion of the USRAP. According to CIS:
The Biden administration has also expanded USRAP. In January 2023, it launched the Welcome Corps program, 'the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in more than 40 years'. The program allows private individuals in the United States (including newly resettled refugees and other newcomers) to select their own refugees and future American citizens. It also eliminates geographic boundaries to resettlement. Another program operating under the umbrella of the Welcome Corps was introduced in July 2023 as an education pathway to citizenship for refugees. The program is called the 'Welcome Corps on Campus' and is designed to welcome refugees straight to U.S. dorms and campuses, allowing for 'U.S. higher education institutions to serve as resettlement spaces and academic opportunities for refugee students.'"
Welcome Corps is a private sponsorship program for refugees that allows for the selection of refugees with very little oversight—moreover, the program benefits mostly from taxpayer funding. Previously, the process was handled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Welcome Corps will expand our capacity to accept refugees.
The Welcome Corps program was launched about a year ago. Blinken announced it on Jan. 19, 2023, boasting it would be "the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades." The resettlement program was included in a September 2022 Report to Congress on Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2023. The Welcome Corps's coordinating partner is the Community Sponsorship Hub (CSH), which Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc. sponsors CSH.
Welcome Corps is designed to "strengthen and expand the capacity of the USRAP...". The program enlists the help of Americans to sponsor refugees with the goal of "mobilizing at least 10,000 Americans to step forward as sponsors." However, there are questions about how well sponsors are vetted and how our taxpayer dollars are being used. It is not only U.S. citizens allowed to sponsor a refugee, but green card holders can as well, "likely including those with conditional two-year green cards."
The Biden administration has been highly focused on facilitating mass migration into the U.S. It is almost as if the current administration sees it as an inevitable reality. It is undoubtedly the type of migration it has encouraged. The current administration says its primary goal is to support legal immigration. However, this administration has entirely redefined the term. Legal immigration under this administration looks nothing like the legal immigration of yesterday.
Under Biden, U.S. immigration policy seems more concentrated on making it orderly and easy than lawful and safe. In his May 2023 press conference, Mayorkas clarified current immigration policy, which focuses on "lawful, safe, and orderly pathways" for migration to the U.S. The reality is that this administration has made it much easier to come here and stay.
It is also likely that this administration seeks to minimize or hide the numbers entering illegally by structuring its policies so that it can cleverly claim more pathways as "legal." One such example is the expansion of humanitarian parole supported by this administration. The way asylum law is interpreted under Biden's humanitarian parole programs is unprecedented and, arguably, nearly completely lawless.
