Part 3: Humanitarian programs to protect persons fleeing from distress were manipulated by Biden. Trump is destroying them.

Prior to the Biden administration, we admitted for permanent residence and potential naturalization roughly one million persons a year. During the Biden years, total influx averaged close to three million a year. Trump is engaged in throwing many of these recent arrivals out.

Humanitarian programs include one for refugees. This program is coordinated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which oversees the care and protection of over 30 million persons who have fled their country. The UNHCR, American embassies, and nonprofit organizations arrange for individuals to be granted refugee status and flown to the United States. Consistent with the generally parsimonious character of humanitarian programs, refugees entering the United States receive a small subsidy for a few months and must repay the cost of their flight to the United States. By law, the executive branch sets a maximum cap on the number of admissions per year. The Biden administration set it high at 125,000 a year. The Trump administration, during his first term and now his second term, appears intent on destroying the program outright.

Another humanitarian program leading to eventual citizenship is asylum. What distinguishes an asylum case from a refugee case is that for asylum, the individual must be on American soil to apply. (Once a refugee enters the United States, their legal status is essentially the same as an asylee’s.) Persons are eligible to apply for asylum regardless of the nature of their arrival and legal status. This program has no cap. During the last years of the first Trump administration and the first years of the Biden administration, asylum applications increased—alarmingly so during the Biden years.

Biden was never candid with the public about his rerouting of asylum seekers into other ways to enter the United States. He used two temporary stay programs—humanitarian parole and temporary protected status—to shepherd hundreds of thousands of persons into the United States. He did this to reduce pressure on the southern border. These programs hit national media due to the large number of Haitians who appeared in Springfield, Ohio, and Latin Americans, notably Venezuelans, in New York City. In many localities across the country, the surge of temporary authorizations burdened public shelter and local education systems, without federal financial help.

It is no surprise that the second Trump administration is systematically dismantling these temporary humanitarian programs. The beneficiaries are well known in federal databases. Many of them will likely voluntarily self-deport. But many will be deported by ICE. Given that these programs involve sponsoring families and organizations, public outcry may be strong. Three Republican Congressmen from the Miami area quickly spoke out against cancellations.