The pressure from the Department of Homeland Security comes as President Donald Trump faces a vanishing window to make the decision on refugee admissions. | Getty Images As Trump mulls refugee cap, DHS officials raise red flags Agency officials tell the White House they may have trouble processing 50,000 refugees next year.

Department of Homeland Security officials have warned the White House that they may have trouble processing 50,000 refugees next year, putting additional pressure on President Donald Trump to lower the cap on refugees entering the United States to the lowest point in decades.

In private meetings with White House officials in recent weeks, DHS officials have raised logistical concerns about handling 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2018 if the president decides to maintain the cap that he imposed as part of the travel ban, according to two administration officials.


One of the officials said the department was swamped with a backlog of asylum applications, which have skyrocketed in recent years. In June, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had roughly 275,000 pending “affirmative” asylum cases — when someone arrives in the U.S. and requests safe haven. The figure amounts to a more than 600 percent increase in the backlog compared with December 2013.

The pressure from DHS comes as Trump faces a vanishing window to make the decision on refugee admissions. According to the statute that governs the program, the president should determine refugee levels before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Though administration officials say Trump has not yet made up his mind, they expect him to lower the refugee cap below 50,000.

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DHS has recommended setting the fiscal year 2018 refugee ceiling at 40,000, the administration officials said.

“DHS does not comment on the Administration’s internal deliberations with regard to the FY18 refugee admissions ceiling,” department spokesman David Lapan said in a statement. “However, in setting the admissions ceiling, the factors taken into account include the workload capacity of all program partners, including the vetting agencies; and the national security interests of the United States.”

Meanwhile, National Security Council and Domestic Policy Council staff have recommended two options to the president: a 50,000 refugee cap and a 40,000 refugee cap, the administration officials said. With Trump in New York City, there is unlikely to be a formal meeting of top administration officials to discuss the issue, but the president is expected to consult his top aides as the deadline nears.

“Nothing final at this time,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders wrote in an email.

The administration still needs to consult with members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to explain why the admissions are justified by humanitarian concerns or the national interest. As of Monday, that meeting had not taken place, according to a Senate aide.

While the cap would be the lowest in the program’s history, refugee admissions dipped below 50,000 during four separate years during the administration of President George W. Bush. In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, admissions fell below 30,000 in 2002 and 2003 and ranged from 40,000 to 50,000 in 2006 and 2007.

At the inception of the resettlement program in 1980, the U.S. accepted more than 207,000 refugees and admissions during the early 1990s consistently rose above 100,000. The program turned inward post-9/11 but gradually began to expand to levels that hit nearly 85,000 in fiscal year 2016.

Despite that history, Trump has faced intense pressure from conservatives to limit the number of refugees who enter the United States, including from his own advisers, like White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the Trump administration rejected a Health and Human Services Department study detailing the economic benefits of accepting refugees.

In a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, which was written by Miller, Trump appeared to offer a rationale for a strict refugee cap.

“We seek an approach to refugee resettlement that is designed to help these horribly treated people, and which enables their eventual return to their home countries, to be part of the rebuilding process,” he said. “For the cost of resettling one refugee in the United States, we can assist more than 10 in their home region.”

Refugee resettlement organizations would like the cap to be at least 75,000 — a figure they say the U.S. can and should shoulder.

Melanie Nezer, vice president of public affairs at HIAS, a resettlement agency formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said 50,000 or fewer admissions would be “an abdication” of the United States’ shared responsibility for humanitarian relief around the world.

“This would be really a signal of a strong retreat,” she said. “And there’s no reason for it.”