The Trump administration admitted zero refugees last month for the first time since records began 30 years ago.

US government officials put a pause on resettling refugees in the country three times in October.

It meant hundreds of refugees who had been cleared for arrival in the US were held up by the delayed signing of an order by President Trump, aimed at limiting the number entering the country.

In September it was announced the White House proposed to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, which is the lowest number in the history of the modern refugee program.

This moratorium on new admissions meant pre-paid tax-payer funded flights had to be re-booked for future dates when admissions will be resumed by the State Department.

Activists from Amnesty International, America's Voice, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Church World Service protest against 'the decimation of the US refugee resettlement program' in front of the US Capitol last month

President Donald Trump speaking at the Economic Club Of New York in the Grand Ballroom of the Midtown Hilton Hotel yesterday. His administration pledged to slash the amount of refugees to settle in the US to just 18,000 in the 2020 fiscal year

Travel for refugees who were told they could come to the US was postponed through to October 21, then delayed to October 28 when another block was imposed.

The zero figure for October was partly due to bureaucratic reasons as the first week of October normally has a pause on arrivals, according to CNN.

A State Department spokeswoman told the network: 'We will work with our implementing partners to plan for a resumption of refugee arrivals, including rescheduling travel for those affected by the extension.'

The US was the leading refugee resettlement country in the world, previously resettling more than all other countries put together, until Donald Trump entered the White House.

Trump began rolling back on this policy and made cutting immigration a centerpiece of his presidency.

It was one of his first acts he made after assuming office in January 2017 was to issue an order capping the maximum number of refugees that year at 50,000, less than half the number former President Barack Obama had set a few months earlier.

A migrants' camp on the Mexican border just south of the Rio Grande, in Matamoros, near to the border with the United States seen (above) on November 1

The cap was whittled down to 45,000 for 2018 and 30,000 for 2019, over the objections of senior officials in the Department of Defense, who view the program as crucial to rewarding and building allies in US military campaigns oversees.

In 2016 the administration of President Barack Obama set the resettled refugee ceiling at 110,000 people.

In its justification for cutting the 2020 cap almost in half, the administration said in a statement the focus had to be on processing in country asylum claims, most of which are filed by migrants from Central America crossing the US-Mexico border.

Nazanin Ash, a vice president the International Rescue Committee, said when the cut was announced: 'Additional cuts next fiscal year would devastate thousands already referred for resettlement, nearly 30,000 of whom have already completed interviews.'

Almost 70,000 migrant children (above the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in Florida) were detained in custody by border officials in 2019, a 42 per cent increase on the previous year

Refugees and community activists gather in front of the White House in Washington in June 2017 when the United States first admitted the lowest number since the resettlement program was created in 1980

Yesterday it was revealed that nearly 70,000 migrant children were detained by US border officials in 2019, which is a 42 per cent increase on the previous year.

There are now more children detained away from their parents in the US than in any other country, according to the new figures from United Nations researchers.

Trump's stance on immigration has regularly courted controversy before and after becoming president.

He has been branded racist for his comments and tweets on the subject, including describing immigrants coming from 'shithole countries' in Africa at a rally in January last year.

More recently the president came under fire for saying four ethnic minority congresswomen dubbed 'the Squad' should 'go back...to the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came'.