Mike Pompeo : We Remain the World's Most Generous Nation

In a comical display of Orwellian newspeak, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted last Thursday his country's generosity and embrace of refugees :

I am proud that one of America’s greatest qualities is our steadfast generosity and willingness to welcome families who have faced circumstances most of us cannot fathom, including war and ethnic cleansing. Refugees are among the world’s most vulnerable people, and America has embraced about 3 million of them since 1980.

Every year, the U.S. government must determine the number of refugees we can admit into the country. The process requires comprehensive and time-consuming background checks and other security measures. This week, after consulting with other federal agencies, the Department of State proposed resettling as many as 30,000 refugees in the U.S.

Already under the Obama administration, the number of Syrian refugees admitted was ridiculously small compared to Canada and European countries. The highly demanding refugee vetting process was naturally further restricted as President Trump took office, setting the refugee admission ceiling for 2018 to its lowest level since the resettlement program began in 1980.

The Secretary continues :

America’s commitment to the most vulnerable also extends well beyond our immigration system. We are putting a new focus on increasing assistance to refugees and other displaced people as close to their home countries as possible. We can house, feed and provide medical care for hundreds of thousands more refugees closer to their homes, and do so more rapidly, than we could possibly do here in the U.S. 

This comes shortly after the decision to stop most funding for UN Palestinian refugees.

Sources :

• US Department of State "We remain the World's Most Generous Nation", Mike Pompeo, September 20, 2018
• US confirms end to funding for UN Palestinian refugees, The Guardian, Peter Beaumont and Oliver Holmes, August 31, 2018
• Urgent UNRWA statement, UNRWA spokesman Sami Mshasha, September 1, 2018
• Syrian Refugees in the United States, Migration Policy Institute, Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova, January 12, 2017
• U.S. ends program for Central American minors fleeing violence, Reuters, Mica Rosenberg, August 16, 2017
• U.S. Immigration Policy under Trump: Deep Changes and Lasting Impacts, Migration Policy Institute, Sarah Pierce, Jessica Bolter and Andrew Selee, July 2018