I study refugees, and here are the facts on the history and impact of refugee resettlement in the US

Borders: closed. Anton Petrus/Moment via Getty

Refugees haven’t been welcome in the United States since the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, when he signed an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 90 days. Despite a February 2025 federal court order to resume refugee resettlement, the administration has said that won’t be happening any time soon because the country’s refugee system has been so thoroughly dismantled.

Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order discontinued regular refugee processing and halted all federal funding for refugee resettlement. It ended the State Department’s 2023 Welcome Corps program, which allowed U.S. citizens to privately sponsor refugees, as well as a program that resettled children from Central America and certain family members. Trump also suspended the follow-to-join visas that reunited refugee families.

Together, these programs make up the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Created in 1980, the program resettles refugees nationwide through partnerships between the government and U.S.-based resettlement agencies. It had made the U.S. the global leader in refugee resettlement.

As a scholar of refugees and displacement, I expect refugee admissions to remain close to zero for the rest of Trump’s term. Thousands of refugees, both at home and abroad, will suffer as a result. So will the many Americans who work within the country’s sprawling refugee resettlement network.

Brief history of US refugee policies

Under U.S. and international law, refugees are people fleeing “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution” due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion or national origin.

While refugees have come to the U.S. since its founding, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 was the country’s first official “refugee” law. The act, which expired in 1952, allowed more than 350,000 European refugees displaced by World War II to enter the U.S. within the constraints of an existing quota system that defined how many refugees the country would admit each year, and from which countries.

Between 1952 and 1980, numerous international refugee crises spurred Congress to pass a series of laws welcoming certain groups into the country.

Political calculations played a major role in these decisions. For instance, as part of America’s Cold War anti-Communist strategy, Congress passed laws in 1962 and 1966 giving tens of thousands of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime sanctuary in the U.S.

In the 1970s and 1980s, following its loss to communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, the U.S. welcomed approximately 1.4 million refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

In 1980, Congress passed the Refugee Act, which amended existing law to raise the annual ceiling for refugees and created a formal process for refugee resettlement.

Every year, through presidential determination, the president in consultation with Congress establishes refugee admissions levels. This decision takes into account U.S. national interests and international humanitarian crises. The caps are announced in the fall.

On average, since 1980, the annual presidential determination number has exceeded 95,000 people. Since 2000, Presidential determinations have ranged from a low of 27,131 – after the 9/11 attacks – to last year’s ceiling of 125,000 refugees per year.

How to get refugee status

To vet potential refugees and assist qualifying refugees in the resettlement process, several U.S. government agencies coordinate closely: The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services.

To qualify for consideration, refugees must be living overseas. The resettlement process begins with registration with the U.N. Refugee Agency. U.N. officials collect documentation and perform an initial screening, then refer qualifying individuals to one of seven U.S. State Department resettlement support centers worldwide.

State Department officials interview applicants and submit them to a rigorous screening that includes an FBI background check. Highly trained immigration officers posted overseas then try to confirm whether applicants meet the legal standards of a refugee. They conduct face-to-face interviews to verify who they are and what forced them to flee. Testimonies are evaluated for consistency with country conditions.

The process takes 18 to 36 months or longer.

Once refugees are accepted into the U.S., 10 national refugee resettlement agencies in coordination with local nonprofit partners support them during their first 90 days in the country.

Previous suspensions

Critics of resettlement, including Trump, have argued that refugees threaten U.S. national security, are unvetted and do not assimilate into the U.S. economy and society.

However, research show that refugees contribute both economically and socially through taxes and entrepreneurship. They also revitalize towns with declining populations.

Between 2005 and 2019, refugees yielded a net positive fiscal impact of US$123.8 billion, at both federal and state levels, and generated an estimated $581 billion for governments at all levels. A 2023 American Immigration Council report found that the spending power of refugees in just one state, California, totaled more than $20.7 billion.

There is no link between refugees and crime, nor is there any notable link to terrorism.

Although the 9/11 attacks were not committed by refugees, President George W. Bush in 2001 suspended refugee admissions for several months, leaving 23,000 refugees already approved for resettlement in limbo, mainly in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Many had sold their belongings and homes in anticipation of moving to the U.S.

In 2017, Trump in his first term in office issued executive order 13769. The directive suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and barred entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – for 90 days. It also indefinitely banned Syrian refugees.

Trump also lowered the annual refugee admissions cap, from 110,000 in 2017 to 45,000 in 2018, and continued dropping it each year. By 2021, his administration had set the lowest refugee cap in U.S. history, at 15,000.

What happens when refugee resettlement pauses

The second suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program drastically affected refugees waiting abroad for resettlement and those already in the U.S.

Arabic-speaking refugees in particular struggled with discrimination and psychosocial challenges such as stress and other medical issues, leading to poorer social integration.

During Trump’s first term, a ban on refugees from Muslim-majority countries created chaos at U.S. airports.
David McNew/Getty Images

The U.S. economy suffered, too. One researcher estimated that Trump’s 2017 suspension of refugee resettlement deprived the country of $9.1 billion in economic activity per year and sapped public coffers at all levels of government of over $2 billion a year. More than 300 Americans who worked in refugee resettlement were laid off in 2017 alone.

Trump’s Muslim ban created an enormous backlog of immigration cases. In 2021, for instance, the incoming Biden administration inherited petitions for 25,994 unprocessed refugee family reunification cases.

Many other vetted refugees were not allowed entry, including U.S.-affiliated Iraqis and Afghans who remained trapped in violent contexts.

Immediate impact of Trump’s order on refugee resettlement

Similar repercussions are already seen today.

As of Jan. 22, 2025, the Trump administration had canceled the flights of 10,000 vetted refugees into the U.S. Most of them were coming from the 10 countries that the U.S. had accepted refugees from in recent years, including Venezuela, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sudan and Iraq.

These refugees are now at acute risk of persecution and violence.

Recently arrived refugees, who would normally receive assistance for their first 90 days, are likewise losing support for basic essentials such as warm clothing, food and housing assistance.

Resettlement agencies nationwide are also feeling the pain of Trump cutting federal funding for refugee resettlement.

Several nonprofits have lost millions in government contracts allocated to assist new arrivals. They were forced to fire dozens or in some cases hundreds of staffers.

Three refugee resettlement agencies have sued the federal government for withholding congressionally appropriated funding for refugee processing and services. On Feb. 25, 2025, a federal judge in Seattle agreed with the plaintiffs in Pacito v. Trump that Trump likely exceeded his authority and temporarily blocked the refugee program’s suspension.

The legal battle over America’s refugee system has just begun. History suggests everyone involved with the program and the U.S. economy will suffer for years to come.

Tazreena Sajjad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.