President Biden issued a memorandum for the Secretary of State stating that the admission of up to 125,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.
The admissions numbers shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with the following regional allocations:
Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000
East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
Europe and Central Asia . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
Latin America/Caribbean . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
Near East/South Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,000
Unallocated Reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000
The 10,000 unallocated refugee numbers shall be allocated to regional ceilings, as needed. Upon providing notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, the secretary of State is authorized to use unallocated admissions in regions where the need for additional admissions arises.
Additionally, upon notification to the Judiciary Committees of the Congress, the secretary of State is further authorized to transfer unused admissions allocated to a particular region to one or more other regions, if there is a need for greater admissions for the region or regions to which the admissions are being transferred.
Biden also specified that, for FY 2022, the following persons may, if otherwise qualified, be considered refugees for the purpose of admission to the United States within their countries of nationality or habitual residence:
- Persons in Cuba;
- Persons in Eurasia and the Baltics;
- Persons in Iraq;
- Persons in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; and
- In certain circumstances, persons identified by a United States Embassy in any location.
