The United States will resettle “more than 100,000 refugees, the highest number in three decades”, according to a White House factsheet, which explains the Biden administration's efforts to rebuild and modernize the refugee resettlement system.

An analysis by the Center for Migration Studies traces the recent history and potential future of refugee resettlement in the U.S., as follows.

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), responsible for resettling more than 3 million refugees over the past fifty years, is a vital tool of U.S. foreign policy, assisting in mitigating humanitarian crises and stabilizing volatile regions. This program exemplifies a successful public-private partnership, where the government works with nonprofit agencies to integrate refugees.

According to the analysis, statistics show that refugees contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, with one report indicating a net contribution of $124 billion over 15 years. The Trump administration, however, has had a substantial negative impact on USRAP, drastically reducing the number of refugees admitted and funding for the program. The former president's policies, including temporarily suspending the program and lowering the refugee cap, resulted in an 86% decline in admissions from 2016 to 2020. In addition, the program's infrastructure has been significantly weakened, making it difficult to process and resettle refugees.

Additional initiatives, such as the Welcome Corps and Safe Mobility Offices (SMO), aim to increase public engagement and facilitate the resettlement process. In 2020, the Center for Migration Studies in New York (CMS), in cooperation with the U.S. Refugee Council, published a report outlining the improvements needed to restore the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

The primary recommendations of the report included restoring the infrastructure of the program by providing sufficient funding to the refugee resettlement agencies to rebuild their capacity; establishing higher refugee ceilings each year to increase admissions, consistent with the capacity of the agencies; and involving the public in helping to welcome refugees to the United States.

The Biden administration has been working to restore USRAP, issuing executive orders to reverse Trump's policies and increasing the number of interviews and admissions of refugees. Despite some initial setbacks, admissions have increased significantly, with an expected resettlement of around 90,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024. In addition, Biden has used other legal tools, such as humanitarian parole, to bring large numbers of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to the U.S.

The future of USRAP, a crucial piece of U.S. foreign policy, is strongly tied to the outcome of the upcoming presidential election, with potential positive or negative impacts depending on who takes office.