(Jewish Group) 'Relieved but disappointed': How America's Jewish refugee aid agency is doing 3 month

[Behind the Aegis]

‘Relieved but disappointed’: How America’s Jewish refugee aid agency is doing 3 months under Biden

Three weeks after taking office, Joe Biden announced that he would quadruple the number of refugees allowed into the United States.

For HIAS, it seemed like an answered prayer, as the Jewish refugee aid agency had endured a rough four years under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.

HIAS, which once focused on resettling refugees, had confronted the first president since World War II who demonized refugees and then temporarily banned them from the United States. The gunman who killed 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue condemned HIAS by name shortly before the massacre.

So HIAS was excited for Biden, who spoke of America’s duty to be a compassionate and welcoming country. Biden’s promise on Feb. 12 to let in 62,500 refugees in 2021 seemed to be a fulfillment of that rhetoric. Trump had set the cap for fiscal year 2021 at 15,000.

And then nothing happened. Two months went by in which Biden did not actually raise the limit on refugees above 15,000, and would not say why, despite the prodding of HIAS and other refugee resettlers. More than 700 refugees who had received plane tickets base

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