Padilla, Durbin, Raskin Press DHS Secretary and Other Officials on Trump Administration’s Refugee Admission Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, pressed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on the Trump Administration’s shameful policies dismantling the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program during an annual, statutorily required refugee consultation for Fiscal Year 2027. The meeting occurred as the Trump Administration is slated to limit refugee admissions “primarily” to just 17,500 White Afrikaners from South Africa over the next fiscal year. “Welcoming a thoughtful number of refugees every year is part of our nation’s legacy and an important international obligation. Yet the Trump Administration has all but closed the door on people fleeing persecution, even leaving behind Afghan allies who fought alongside U.S. service members and have now spent years in the resettlement pipeline,” said Senator Padilla . “Meanwhile, the Administration is aggressively pursuing the deportation of refugees, asylum seekers, TPS holders, and green card holders to countries we know are unsafe and have questionable human rights records. It’s un-American and flies in the face of our longstanding commitment to being a beacon of freedom in the world. The Administration must restart refugee resettlement to a respectable and honorable level.” “The Trump Administration’s agenda is clear: prioritize white-only Afrikaners as refugees and disregard the millions of men, women, and children from around the world who are trying to escape horrific violence and persecution,” said Senator Durbin . “Although we finally heard directly from a Cabinet official on this Administration’s refugee policies, unlike the last consultations, as the law requires, the Trump Administration is doing everything possible to attack our immigrant communities. We must restore our longstanding asylum policies and admit lawful refugees—including the Afghan allies who served alongside our troops abroad.” “Yesterday’s consultation reinforces our sense that the Administration has turned America’s traditional refugee program into a whites-only airplane ride for South African Afrikaners into Trump’s America. Afghan allies who risked their lives fighting alongside our troops, religious minorities facing intensified persecution in Iran and tens of thousands of approved and pre-vetted refugees fleeing war from around the world have been left twisting in the wind for years. But white Afrikaners get the Elon Musk presidential red-carpet treatment. America should offer race-neutral asylum for people fleeing tyrants and war, but Donald Trump is stiff-arming families we promised to protect and turning a humanitarian lifeline into another exercise in political favoritism and racial exclusion,” said Representative Raskin . In June, Padilla and Durbin objected to the Trump Administration’s flawed attempt at an appropriate consultation with Congress on May 21 and an increase in the refugee admissions goal solely for white Afrikaners from South Africa. In May, Padilla, Durbin, and Raskin, along with U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), released a statement after a consultation on the Trump Administration’s refugee admissions plan to increase the refugee cap included only deputies, not Cabinet-level representatives as the law requires. Last year, Padilla, Durbin, Raskin, and Jayapal also slammed the Trump Administration’s decision to abandon nearly 130,000 vetted refugees and slash refugee admissions to 7,500 without the legally required consultation with Congress. ###