Trump administration sets lowest cap on refugee admissions in four decades. Again.

NBC News reports that President Donald Trump's administration has once again set the lowest cap on refugee admissions in the program's almost 40 year history, allowing fewer than 20,000 resettlements.

The administration will only propose resettlements for 18,000 of the 368,000 asylum and refugee applications it expects to field in the upcoming fiscal year, the Department of State said in a press release. The proposed number is a fraction of the 85,000 cap proposed by former president Barack Obama in 2016.

Trump's administration said it was focusing on "assisting refugees where they are concentrated" and cited the drain on American resources caused by illegal immigration.

"Indeed, it would be irresponsible for the United States to go abroad seeking large numbers of refugees to resettle when the humanitarian and security crisis along the southern border already imposes an extraordinary burden on the U.S. immigration system," the State Department said in its release.

Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan also said that the proposed cap for the 2020 fiscal year would allow the department to address "the ongoing crisis at the southern border."

According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people in the world today. This includes 25.9 million refugees and 3.5 million asylum seekers.

KJ