WASHINGTON— The Trump administration plans a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained Monday by The Associated Press, in the latest blow against a program that has for decades welcomed people fleeing war and persecution into the country.
The review is likely to sow confusion and fear among the nearly 200,000 refugees who came to the United States during that period. It is likely to face legal challenges from advocates, some of whom said the move was part of the administration’s “cold-hearted treatment” of people trying to build new lives in the U.S.
The memo, signed by the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, and dated Friday, said that during the Biden years “expediency” and “quantity” were prioritized over “detailed screening and vetting.” The memo said that warranted a comprehensive review and “re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025.”
The memo indicated that there will be a list of people to re-interview within three months.
Advocates of the refugee program say that refugees are generally some of the most vetted of all people coming to the United States and that they often wait years to be able to come.
The memo also immediately suspended green card approvals for refugees who came to the U.S. during the stated time period.
If the agency determines that a person shouldn’t have qualified for entry as a refugee, the person “has no right to appeal,” according to the memo, although if they are put in removal proceedings and sent to immigration court, they can then plead their case there. The memo also stated that even those who have already received their green card would be reviewed.
“USCIS is ready to uphold the law and ensure the refugee program is not abused,” Edlow wrote.
People admitted to the U.S. as refugees are required to apply for a green card one year after they arrive in the country and usually five years after that can apply for citizenship.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The moves described in the memo are the latest to take aim at the refugee program, which the administration suspended earlier this year and later set a limit for entries to 7,500 mostly white South Africans — a historic low of refugees to be admitted to the U.S. since the program’s inception in 1980. The Trump administration more broadly has ramped up immigration enforcement as part of its promise to increase deportations of illegal immigrants.
The Biden administration admitted 185,640 refugees from October 2021 through September 2024. Refugee admissions topped 100,000 last year, with the largest numbers coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria.
Refugee advocates slammed news of the review, saying that it will traumatize people who have already gone through extensive vetting to make it to the U.S. in the first place.
“This plan is shockingly ill-conceived,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy at HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency. “This is a new low in the administration’s consistently cold-hearted treatment of people who are already building new lives and enriching the communities where they have made their homes.”
USCIS expects to have a priority list for re-interviews within 90 days, Edlow wrote. His language points to a rigorous revisiting of why refugee status was granted in the first place.
“Testimony will include, but is not limited to, the circumstances establishing past persecution or a well-founded fear for principal refugees, the persecutor bar, and any other potential inadmissibilities,” he wrote.
Sharif Aly, President of the International Refugee Assistance Project, an advocacy group, criticized the administration’s actions in a statement late Monday, saying that refugees are “already the most highly vetted immigrants in the United States.”
“Besides the enormous cruelty of this undertaking, it would also be a tremendous waste of government resources to review and re-interview 200,000 people who have been living peacefully in our communities for years,” Aly said.
IRAP is currently part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the administration’s suspension of refugee admissions.
