US set to admit fewest refugees in decades: report

The United States is on track to admit fewer refugees in fiscal 2018 than it has since 1980, a new analysis shows.

The Economist reported Saturday that 20,800 refugees are expected to be admitted during the first full fiscal year under the Trump administration’s leadership. That number is down 61 percent from fiscal 2017, which was governed partly under former President Obama and partly under President Trump. 

Specifically, the number of Muslim refugees entering the U.S. in 2018 is on pace to drop by about 85 percent, the Economist found. 

{mosads}Muslims comprised 41 percent of admitted refugees between 2013 and 2017, but make up just 17 percent of refugees in 2018 so far. Meanwhile, Christians make up about 58 percent of incoming refugees, according to the Economist.

The news outlet found the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. has also shrunk from 6,557 in 2017 to 44 so far this year. 

The Trump administration announced last September it would allow no more than 45,000 refugees into the U.S. in 2018. The cap, which officials argued served national security interests, is the lowest ever set for resettlement. 

Trump pledged as a candidate in the 2016 campaign to limit the number of refugees entering the U.S., and proposed banning Muslims from coming into the country.

His administration issued a travel ban in January 2017 that blocked citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. 

That travel ban has been revised and undergone multiple court challenges. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments this week on the legality of the third iteration of the ban.