By Muzaffar Chishti, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, and Madeleine Greene
The 100,034 refugees resettled in the United States in fiscal year (FY) 2024 represent the largest resettlement number in 30 years and a remarkable rebound from the approximately 11,400 admissions three years earlier—the lowest in the U.S. refugee program’s history. The turnaround re-cements the United States’ role as the top global resettlement destination, far surpassing other major resettlement countries in Europe and Canada.
The sea change was the result of a large-scale investment in people and processes that support the refugee system, the streamlining of systems, and a willingness to experiment with policies such as establishing gateway facilities closer to refugees’ origin countries and allowing groups of private individuals to sponsor refugees. It was made possible by the bolstered operations of hundreds of resettlement offices nationwide, run by the ten nonprofit organizations that are authorized to help resettle refugees (one of which is a new addition). In the process, the Biden administration fulfilled a Joe Biden campaign promise and the result may stand as one of the few immigration-related legacies that has avoided becoming a political liability during this presidency.
Admissions for the recently ended fiscal year were the highest since FY 1994, when nearly 113,000 refugees were resettled in the United States. While a significant increase over recent years, the number was still far off the historic highs of the initial stages of the modern U.S. refugee program. Meanwhile, the number of refugees worldwide was 31.6 million as of 2023, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), precisely twice as many as in 1994. In the Western Hemisphere, crises such as those occurring in Venezuela and Haiti have led to very sizeable numbers of migrants seeking entry to the United States, often by crossing irregularly at the southwest border. Importantly, the refugee resettlement program is different from the asylum system, which processes individuals seeking protection at the border or from within the United States (see Box 1 in the PDF).
In response to the rising displacement, the Biden administration has sought to disincentivize irregular arrivals by restricting access to asylum for migrants arriving without authorization at the southwest border and incentivize use of lawful pathways such as new humanitarian parole processes and increased refugee resettlement—including from Latin America. While the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program did not hit the administration’s target of 125,000 resettlements in FY 2024, the nearly 25,400 refugees from the Western Hemisphere were the most in its history and a quadrupling from 6,300 the previous year. Still, accommodating parolees and other new arrivals diverted resources and attention away from refugee resettlement. This article reviews the measures that the Biden administration took to rebuild the resettlement program and the network of agencies that facilitate U.S. refugee resettlement.