To the Editor:

Re “U.S. Cuts Refugee Program Again, Placing Cap at 18,000 People” (news article, Sept. 27):

At a time when the number of refugees w orldwide is at a record high, this administration continues its course of isolation and cruelty by cutting back on both access to asylum protections and refugee support.

For comparison, my own country, G ermany, smaller in size than the state of Montana, has accepted 1.1 million refugees, while U ganda, a third the size of Texas, has accepted 1.3 million.

The arguments by the administration about a lack of resources and safety concerns are unfounded. Resettlement to the United States often requires years-long and rigorous vetting. A 2017 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that refugees who entered the United States as a dults from 2010 to 2014 paid, on average, $21,000 more in taxes than they got in any kind of welfare payments.

From Myanmar, where Rohingya fathers are forced to watch their daughters being raped by the military, to Iraq, where Yazidi girls are sold by ISIS for the price of a pack of cigarettes, the United States is abandoning those who need our protection the most.