Under Biden's increased 125,000 refugee ceiling, more migrants will arrive from Latin America and the Caribbean
The Biden administration wants to let in more refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean over the next year because the number of people coming to the southern border of the United States is going up.
The White House announced on Friday how many refugees it wants to take in during the next fiscal year, which starts on October 1, and from what parts of the world.
The number is 125,000, the same as last year.
But in a big change, the government said it wants to let 35,000 to 50,000 refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean in, up from 15,000 this year. At the same time, it cut the number of refugees from Europe and Central Asia it plans to take in from 15,000 to between 2,000 and 3,000 per year.
Also, the government got rid of a "unallocated reserve" from earlier years that let them save some spots and use them anywhere.
The decision on next year's refugee cap comes at a time when the U.S. is seeing a record number of migrants come to the southern border, many of them trying to get asylum in the U.S. Republicans and Democrats alike have put a lot of pressure on the administration to deal with the problem. Republicans say the administration hasn't done much to secure the border.
The cap is the number of people from around the world that the U.S. wants to take in each year, but that doesn't mean that the U.S. will actually take that many. Out of a possible 125,000, the U.S. had only let in about 51,000 as of August.
Being a refugee is not the same as getting other types of safety, like asylum.
As a refugee, a person must be living outside of the United States. They are usually sent to the State Department by the U.N.'s refugee agency. While they are still abroad, U.S. officials question and check them out. One must be in the United States in order to apply for asylum.