Barack Obama's administration could rush through the Australia-United States refugee resettlement deal to get people on Manus Island and Nauru "under wire" before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, an immigration expert says.

Key points: Australia should not dump its refugee problem on United States, Mark Krikorian says

Australia should not dump its refugee problem on United States, Mark Krikorian says "They do have somewhere else to go, and that is Australia," he says

"They do have somewhere else to go, and that is Australia," he says Mr Krikorian "wouldn't put it past Obama" to get migrants in as quick as possible

The Australian Government is proudly promoting its policy to resettle some of the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru in the United States.

However, whether Mr Trump will keep the deal once he becomes president in January is another matter.

Mark Krikorian is the executive director of the Centre for Immigration Studies — a think-tank that supports tighter controls on immigration in the US.

He said the policy was contrary to Mr Trump's policies, and said Australia should not be dumping its refugee problem on the US.

"It strikes me as crazy," he told PM about the deal.

"I don't begrudge you all for giving it a try, but I have no idea why Obama would think this was a good idea and he would agree to it.

"The United States is not the dumping ground for other people's refugee problems."

He said if they were genuine refugees Australia should accept them.

"There are people all over the world that potentially could be resettled in the United States and we ought to be taking only the most desperate people who literally have nowhere else to go," he said.

"They do have somewhere else to go, and that is Australia."

'Entirely possible' Obama could rush deal

He did not think Mr Trump would maintain the deal, regardless of Australia's lobbying efforts.

"We have a good relationship with Australia — one of our closest allies in the world," he said.

"If this were a unique situation that there was no way for Australia to deal with, I could see extending them a helping hand, but this is just a matter of shipping these illegal immigrants to the United States.

"We've got 11 or 12 million of them, want some of ours?"

The Prime Minister said officials from the US would travel to Australia in the next few days, and then would go to Nauru where they would assess the claims.

Mr Krikorian said it was possible some could make their way to the US while Mr Obama was still president, pointing to the fact the assessment for Syrian refugees was sped up from 18-24 months to three months.

"I wouldn't put it past Obama," he said.

"It's entirely possible the administration will rush the admission of the illegal immigrants you all have offshore in order to get them in under the wire before January 20 when Trump becomes president."