Trump aims to slash refugee admissions and add racist criteria

By Miriam Raftery

Image left:  Refugee issues covered by ECM over the years includes persecution of Iraqi Christians, Kurdish immigrations fleeing ISIS, a migrant crisis at the Mexican border, asylum seekers fleeing violence in Africa, efforts to help African women refugees, Afghan refugees starting new lives in East County--many after helping the U.S. military, Ukrainians in Santee after Russia's invasion of their homeland, and cultural celebrations of Asian immigrants in our region.

October 19, 2025 (San Diego, CA) – San Diego has admitted more refugees from around the world than any other county in the U.S. in the years just prior to the current Trump administration, welcoming people from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe. Our region has been enriched by these newcomers in many ways, such as the array of international restaurants and cultural attractions in the San Diego region.

But  President Donald Trump, after already slashing aid to refugees, now proposes to sharply restrict admissions and prioritize admitting predominantly white, English-speaking Europeans who claim persecution due to opposing mass migration or support of “populist” political parties such as far-right neo-Nazi groups in  Europe.

The New York Times reports that Trump aims to slash refugee admissions from 125,000 to just 7,500 this fiscal year---at a time when the world has 42.7 million documented refugees seeking safe havens.

After already announcing priority for White South Afrikaans (the racist former ruling class) despite no evidence of persecution, Trump now wants to prioritize Europeans with views that align with religious or racist extremist groups, according to Human Rights Watch, including a German “anti-immigrant party whose leaders have traffickedin antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”How many people claiming persecution due to opposing mass immigration are currently huddled in refugee camps? “There aren’t any,” Human Rights Watch reports. Yet refugee status is supposed to be defined as people who have fled their homelands due to credible fears of persecution—such as Sudanese refugees in Chad, Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh,and Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The latter are now being deported from Pakistan back to Afghanistan due to Trump yanking protected status from Afghans promised safe haven in the U.S. and now fear for their lives under Taliban rules.

Shan VanDiver, director of AfghanEvac,  told the UK’s Independent, “When the U.S. signals that some identities are more deserving of safety than others,it diminishes our standing...It tells Afghan allies, persecuted minorities and families still waiting in danger that their sacrifices and their lives matterless.  We see this firsthand: thousands of Afghans believed American when we said, 1Stand with us and we’ll stand with you.’ To now prioritize Europeans over them is not just inequitable—it is an unconscionable betrayal.”

The new actions come after the administration already slashed financial aid and healthcare for refugees.  Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law restricts the eligibility of refugees for Medicaid, Medicare, children’s health insurance and even emergency food aid.

Moreover, Secretary of State Marco Rubio shifted over a quarter of a billion dollars out of the department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance Fund into paying immigrants to self-deport.

Naomi Steinberg, vice president of U.S. policy for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the world’s oldest refugee resettlement agency, says Trump’s proposal to radically overhaul of the refugee system in the U.S. would “deliberately leave vulnerable people in danger all around the world, rendering it unrecognizable.”