The number of refugees travelling to the US has been on the decline consistently since Trump took office with 9,945 coming in October, 8,355 in November, 7,371 in December, and 6,777 in January.
Many of the refugees who did arrive in March came from nations listed in Trump’s travel order, including 335 from Somalia, 282 from Syria, and 101 from Iran.
On March 16, Trump’s 50,000 ceiling on refugees permitted to enter the nation in the 2017 fiscal year went into effect — a sharp decline from the 110,000 that the Obama administration had vowed to accept.
“With the fiscal year now halfway through, 39,098 refugees had arrived as of March 31, of whom 30,122 arrived before the end of the Obama administration and 8,967 since Trump’s inauguration,” CNS News reports.
“General Kelly is doing a great job at the border. Numbers are way down. Many are not even trying to come in anymore,” the president tweeted last month.
According to a report from the Washington Times, 31,575 people were apprehended in January while attempting to cross, compared to 43,253 in December 2016. The number of undocumented immigrants at the ports of entry on the southern border also fell 28 percent, to 10,899.
The number of apprehensions made are typically seen as an indicator of overall flow. The logic is that the more people who are apprehended, the more people who also made it across undetected. Winter is generally a slower month, with far more illegal crossings occurring during warmer months.
