I Used to Run the Immigration Service—and Trump’s Refugee Policy Is Baseless

When President Trump signed the first travel ban in January, he inched closer toward fulfilling his campaign pledge to institute “extreme vetting” of refugees seeking to enter the United States. Last month, he delivered on that promise, announcing new security procedures that will make it much harder for refugees from selected countries to be admitted to the country.

The travel ban provided the government 90 days to review vetting procedures. The order, issued last week, resumed the resettlement of refugees,, most of which are predominantly Muslim. These new procedures hardly come as a surprise given the president’s defense of his previous bans, which have been mired in legal challenges, but it also falls in line with the administration’s position to reduce the number of refugees in the United States altogether: In September, the administration set the refugee admissions cap for fiscal year 2018 at an , suggesting that the United States should favor resettling refugees with a “likelihood of successful assimilation and contribution” to the country. The administration also had earlier implemented a comprehensive ban on travel to the U.S. by nationals of several of the countries, in particular Syria, with the highest numbers of applicants for admission as refugees.