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How the Trump Administration Is Dismantling Refugee and Asylum Programs [1]

['Margy O Herron']

Date: 2026-07 

Evolution of U.S. Refugee and Asylum Policies

Even before its founding, refugees like the Puritans have been coming to what would become the United States to escape persecution, but the official refugee program expanded after World War II. Protections for Jews and other minorities persecuted during the Holocaust were severely limited due to quotas that had been on the books since the 1920s, leading to incidents like the U.S. government’s decision to turn away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany on the ship St. Louis, over a quarter of whom ultimately perished in the Holocaust.

President Harry Truman issued a directive in 1945 that was the first in a series of executive and legislative actions that led to the acceptance of more than 350,000 refugees displaced by the war. Over the next few decades, a series of laws were passed to accept refugees from specified countries, most notably Cubans fleeing the Fidel Castro–led revolution.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act that eliminated country quotas. Three years later, in 1968, the U.S. signed on to the international Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, which defined the term “refugee” and outlined refugees’ legal rights. Subsequent waves of refugees included more than 100,000 refugees from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam War and hundreds of thousands more Cubans.

The Refugee Act of 1980 formalized the refugee program, officially adopting the United Nations’ refugee definition, allowing the president to set the annual number of refugee admissions in consultation with Congress, and establishing a statutory basis for asylum. Those refugee and asylum frameworks remain in place today.

Since 1980, the number of refugees admitted annually has ranged from more than 207,000 in 1980 to a low of just over 11,000 in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since 1990, asylum approvals have ranged from just over 5,000 in 1991 to a record high of more than 54,000 in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available.

In addition to Cubans welcomed into the United States during the revolution and reign of Castro, the humanitarian programs also protected scientist Albert Einstein, who fled from the Nazis, and Madeleine Albright, who escaped communism in Czechoslovakia and eventually became U.S. secretary of state. More recently, the program has protected defectors from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Afghan nationals who supported U.S.-coalition forces during the war there, and women and children fleeing severe domestic abuse and rape.

Americans across the political spectrum strongly support the country’s historic commitment to welcoming the persecuted. Two thirds of Americans oppose suspending all asylum applications from people coming to the United State to escape violence or danger, and nearly 7 in 10 Americans support having a refugee program.

Yet the Trump administration is deeply cutting these humanitarian programs. The ostensible reason is to protect the country, but asylees and refugees must undergo thorough application processes, including screening and vetting.

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[1] Url: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-trump-administration-dismantling-refugee-and-asylum-programs

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