The Trump administration has suspended until further notice all arrivals into the United States of refugees who have sought asylum, including those who have been granted it, a decision that affects thousands of people around the world, documents show consulted Wednesday by AFP.
• Also read: Immigration: Trump administration threatens local authorities who refuse to implement federal decisions
• Also read: Refugees who were supposed to go to the United States have their flights canceled
This measure is part of the draconian decisions against immigration to the United States taken by Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.
In the wake of a decree signed Monday by the Republican billionaire ordering to suspend the entry of refugees as of January 27 and for a period of at least 90 days, “all planned refugee trips to the United States previously canceled,” said a State Department email dated Tuesday.
Photo d’archives, AFP
“No travel reservations will be made” and processing of files is suspended, the note adds.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration is also being asked not to move refugees to transit centers.
-Refugees already settled in the United States will, however, continue to benefit from the services provided, and the measure does not concern a special visa program, particularly for Afghans who worked for the United States before the fall of the Afghan government in 2021.
Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, however, expressed concern in a statement that Afghans were also being left in limbo with canceled flights.
President Trump, faithful to his campaign promises, issued a flurry of decrees on the first day of his mandate, ranging from the proclamation of a state of emergency at the Mexican border to calling into question land rights.
“Over the past four years, the United States has been inundated with record migration flows, including under the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP),” President Trump wrote in his executive order, emphasizing that states -United States “do not have the capacity to absorb large numbers of migrants, and particularly refugees, into their communities.”
This affects thousands of people around the world, some of whom already had their plane tickets in their pockets and endured a lengthy admissions process.
In the same decree, the Republican president revoked a decree from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden concerning the admission of so-called “climate” refugees.
