Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026

Floor Speech

Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington DC, June 8, 2026. President Donald J. Trump, The White House, Washington, DC.

Dear President Trump: On May 21, 2026, you issued an Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026, increasing the refugee admissions goal from 7,500 to 17,500. We offer the following observations and recommendations on your Administration's shameful efforts to gut the refugee admissions program.

We have identified multiple legal defects with the Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026. First, your Administration did not conduct the appropriate consultation required by Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 207(a)(2) before the President may increase the refugee admissions goal in response to an unforeseen refugee situation. INA section 207(e) defines an appropriate consultation as including ``discussions in person by designated Cabinet-level representatives of the President with members of the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and of the House of Representatives to review the refugee situation or emergency refugee situation.'' The purported consultation on May 21 occurred with the Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, and no attempts were made to ensure that members of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate could attend. Prior to the consultations for Fiscal Year 2026, there are no recorded instances of a consultation occurring without at least one cabinet level official. The consultation therefore did not meet statutory requirements for an appropriate consultation. This follows multiple instances in the first Trump Administration when the Executive Branch violated the Refugee Act by failing to hold timely and meaningful consultations with Congress.

We also observe that there is no ``unforeseen refugee emergency'' in South Africa justifying an increase in the refugee admissions goal. Congress created a process in the Refugee Act of 1980 under which the President can increase the refugee admissions allocation when a crisis resulted in an unexpected impact on countries of first asylum or when a U.S. response would alleviate grave humanitarian concerns or promote national interests. The Senate Judiciary Committee report on the Refugee Act (S. Rept. 96-256) listed the following examples: a ``sudden exodus of people from a country where there had been no refugee flow before,'' ``a substantial increase in the number of refugees in an area of the world where 'normal flow' refugees were anticipated, but urgent new numbers developed,'' or ``any catastrophic circumstance affecting an asylum area requiring immediate action.''

No such unforeseen emergency was described by the Administration's briefers during the consultation or through supplemental materials. To justify the increase in refugee admissions, your designees pointed to an increase in ongoing reports of ``rhetoric'' attacking Afrikaners by the South African government. However, in your Executive Order issued on February 7, 2025, entitled, ``Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa.'' you cite ``hateful rhetoric and government actions'' by the South African government against Afrikaners--if we accept these representations as accurate, continued rhetoric was not unforeseen. Similarly, the Report to Congress on Proposed Emergency Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026 discusses a raid by South African officials on a U.S. Refugee Processing Center. By all accounts, the U.S. government had contracted officials to work in the Center without lawful work authorization, and enforcement action against individuals working unlawfully could hardly be called unforeseen. During the consultation, your designees further admitted that South Africa's official policies regarding Afrikaners have not changed since the previous consultation in November 2025.

By contrast, there are numerous forced displacement crises and conflicts worldwide that would justify an emergency increase in the ceiling, including, for example, in Sudan, Burma, and Haiti. During the consultation, some members raised resettlement of refugees from Iran, including religious minority community members and political dissidents. Escalating violence in South Sudan, including attacks on civilians, led 100,000 people to flee into Ethiopia in March 2026 alone. Since the November 2025 consultation, escalating violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo between the Congolese Armed Forces and M23 rebel group led more than 40,000 people to flee to Burundi in a single week. Since early March 2026, more than one million people in Lebanon, or 20 percent of the country's population, have been internally displaced due to escalating hostilities in the Middle East.

Your designees also stated that only Afrikaners are being considered for an exception to the bar on refugee admission. On January 20, 2025, you signed Executive Order 14163, putting an indefinite pause on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. This Executive Order allows the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to admit refugees to the United States on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the entry of such noncitizens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States. On December 19, 2025, the Secretary of State designated this authority to the Deputy Secretary, the Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, and the Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom.

During the consultation, however, the designees noted that only Afrikaners are currently being excepted from the Executive Order and could not describe a process by which any other applicant for refugee admission may be considered for an exception. There were 42.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2025, including many who present no threat to the security or welfare of the United States, and whose admission would be in the national interest of the United States. For example, many refugees remain separated from their families in the United States. Thousands of Afghan allies remain stranded abroad after risking their lives to serve alongside our servicemembers. There are also 123,000 fully vetted refugees who were in the pipeline to come to the United States on the first day of this Administration, 12,000 of whom had their travel to the United States scheduled. During the consultation, your designees stated these refugees will remain stranded until the policy is changed. We urge you to consider additional refugees for exceptions to the ban on refugee admission under Executive Order 14163.

The U.S. refugee admissions program has been the gold standard of vetting and served as a key diplomatic tool for 46 years. The program was created by Congress with the express purpose to give ``statutory meaning to our national commitment to human rights and humanitarian concerns.'' Your decision only to admit as refugees members of a group favored by your Administration is a betrayal of our nation's longstanding bipartisan commitment to serve as a safe haven for those fleeing persecution. We urge you to conduct an appropriate consultation that complies with the law and to admit refugees impacted by the emergencies described above. Sincerely, Richard J. Durbin, Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary. Alex Padilla,

Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration.

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