As The Political Spin Continues, Here Are Some Key Facts About Refugees And The U.S.

As politicians around the country continue to work themselves into a frenzy over Trump’s January 27th executive order temporarily suspending immigration from seven countries, we thought it might be helpful to take a step back and review some key statistics regarding America’s historical refugee admissions.

According to research from the Pew Research Center (“PRC”), since the Refugee Act of 1980 was passed into law roughly 3 million refugees have been resettled in the United States with annual totals fluctuating around flare ups of international crises. 

And while liberal pundits assert that Trump’s executive order is unprecedented, as PRC notes, the U.S. largely halted refugees resettlements in 2001 as well after the September 11 terrorist attacks.  Throughout the 1990’s, resettlements averaged around 100,000 per year before dropping to just 27,000 in 2002 in the wake of 9/11.  That said, since 2002 refugee admissions have gradually trended higher and reached a nearly two-decade high during Obama’s last year in the White House. 

Meanwhile, nearly 39,000 Muslim refugees entered the U.S. in fiscal 2016, the highest number on record, according to data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.  In fact, in 2016, Muslims made up nearly half (46%) of refugee admissions, a higher share than for Christians, who accounted for 44% of refugees admitted.

As we’ve noted before, California, Texas, New York and Michigan were the largest recipients of refugees in 2016.

Finally, despite assertions from the alt-left and some “rigged polls” from CNN, among others, that Trump’s immigration ban lacks support among the American electorate, with the exception of about 60 million people who suddenly became extremely racist and hateful in 2016 just before voting Trump into the White House, the PRC notes that Americans have generally not supported massive waves of refugees over the decades.

But, who needs facts when they can be so damaging to a desired narrative?