President Joe Biden tweeted on Saturday that the United States “will welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees,” which seems like a really big number. . .
Helping Ukrainian refugees is not something Poland or any nation should carry alone.
All the world’s democracies have a responsibility to help. And the people of Ukraine can count on the United States to meet its responsibility.
We will welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 27, 2022
. . .that is, until you look at what really goes on with refugees in the United States. Immigration reporter Dara Lind pointed out before President Biden’s tweet that “Anyone saying the US is 100K Ukrainian refugees’ is lying to you”:
Anyone saying the US is taking in “100K Ukrainian refugees” is lying to you.
& when you see “up to 100K Ukrainian refugees,” remember:
-In FY21, the US committed to bring in up to 62.5K refugees & admitted 11.4K;
-For FY22, US said up to 125K. It’s on pace (as of Feb) for 16K.— Dara Lind (@DLind) March 25, 2022
Yep. It’s the “up to” weasel language getting warned about:
JUST IN: The U.S. will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war and plans to unveil $1 billion in new humanitarian aid funding for Ukrainians and refugees in neighboring countries.https://t.co/AlXj9JXRGf
— NPR (@NPR) March 24, 2022
And exactly how will Team Biden staff this project in an already understaffed agency? Facts matter:
(Citation for pace in FY22 below.)
Resettlement infrastructure _takes time_ (as some of us have been saying since 2020). And btw, the surge capacity for USCIS refugee officers? The same asylum officers who just got handed extra work in yesterday’s reg. https://t.co/PgCFVD80gn
— Dara Lind (@DLind) March 25, 2022
But she points out that President Biden is not “lying quite yet,” but it’s “unlikely” that the U.S. will ever hit the 100,000 mark:
To be clear: I said “is taking in.”
Biden’s saying the US will, which I find…unlikely…but he hasn’t been shown to be lying quite yet.
— Dara Lind (@DLind) March 27, 2022
Unfortunately, those in Kyiv are buying the hype:
⚡️US to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
U.S. President Joe Biden said via Twitter on March 26 that “the people of Ukraine can count on the United States to meet its responsibility” to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 27, 2022
Now, we wait, for this “promise”:
WATCH: As the U.S. promises to take 100,000 refugees, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. @OMarkarova says "let's stop the war so that there will not be more refugees."
"Whether it's going to be enough [refugees the U.S. is taking in] or not, depends on how quickly we all act." pic.twitter.com/o2wcrM8DhH
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 27, 2022
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Related:
White House & ‘fact-checkers’ attempt to clean-up what Biden told US troops about Ukraine
Wait, WHAT? Biden tells US troops in Poland what they’re ‘going to see’ in Ukraine
