As Trump is looking for a systemic change, do the United States have an obligation to refugees? | Refugee news

But even a legal victory may not be enough to restore the American refugee system.

The Ramji-Nogales of the University of Temple told Al Jazeera that, even if the legal challenges prevailed, there are a myriad of other ways in which the Trump administration could make the program almost ineffective.

“If they cannot stop it completely, they can really reduce figures and really inflict damage on the program and its ability to operate in the future,” she said.

The 1980 legislation created an annual process for the president to define admission ceilings: a maximum number of refugees that can be authorized in the United States.

Since 1990, admissions to refugees have the average About 65,000 per year. However, the 1980 refugee law does not set any minimum on the number of refugees that must be authorized.

The late President Jimmy Carter set the highest bar, with an admission ceiling of more than 230,000.

Trump, on the other hand, crowned admissions for the 2020 to 18,000 financial year, marking a historic hollow. For 2021 – The year of the end of his first mandate – he proposed an even smaller number: 15,000.

It is not known to what extent Trump can legally go to minimize the program during his second term, according to Opila, the lawyer for the American Immigration Council.

“There is not a ton of case law on the type of border” that the president could be confronted, said Opila.

For its part, the Trump administration indicated that there was at least one group that it is ready to prioritize in refugee admissions: white Afrikaners from South Africa.

In an executive decree in February, Trump said that the United States “will promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaped from discrimination based on the race sponsored by the government, including the confiscation of racially” discriminatory discriminatory goods “.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, however, said that Trump’s anti-white discrimination allegations were false.

We do not know what the effect of all these changes will be, according to Ramji-Nogales.

She noted that there was traditionally the bipartite support for the refugee program, because he rode religious interests and efforts to promote us “soft power” abroad.

It was true even when the public feeling towards refugees has plunged into various points in recent decades, she said.

But Trump has faced little opposition from his own republican party so far during his second term.

“What is happening then depends on what’s going on in mid-term elections and depends on what is happening with the next presidential election,” said Ramji-Nogales.

“But I think that long-term ramifications for the United States and the rest of the world will be unhappy to say the least.”