Muslim Ban? Fewer Muslim Refugees, Immigrants, and Travelers Enter U.S. in 2017

During his campaign, President Trumppromised to ban all Muslims outright until he could figure out “what is going on.” Helater explained that this idea had developed into several policies that would have the same effect. Since his inauguration, Trump has begun to implement them —they includeslashing the refugee program,banning all immigration and travelers from several majority Muslim countries, andimposing new burdens on all visa applicants as part of “extreme vetting” initiatives. So far, these policies appear to have “worked,” strongly reducing Muslim immigration and travel to the United States.Muslim refugee admissions have fallen dramatically over the past year. According tofigures from the State Department, Muslim refugee flows fell 94 percent from January to November 2017 (the last full month of available data). In calendar 2016, the United States admitted almost 45,000 Muslim refugees, compared to a little more than 11,000 in 2017 —fully half of those entered in January and February. Of course, the administration has cut refugee flows generally, but the Muslim share of all refugees has dropped substantially too—from 50 percent in January to less than 10 percent in November.Figure 1 Monthly Muslim Refugee Admissions for Each Month of 2017 and Average for 2016 Source:U.S. Department of State *Monthly average, **Through December 11, 2017This year ’s drop is even more substantial when compared with the trend. In only one year over the last decade has ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs