Washington, D.C. (March 21, 2020) – A new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals that despite tough measures undertaken by the Trump administration to limit the virus outbreak inside the United States, refugees are still being admitted into American communities. From January 29 (the day the president's Coronavirus Task Force to lead the U.S. government response to the coronavirus was formed) to March 18 (the deadline for this report), the United States resettled 3,037 refugees, including 19 Iranians (Iran is one of the countries particularly affected by the coronavirus). The day after the deadline for the report, March 19, two more refugees were admitted into the United States, both from Syria.

These thousands of refugees were allowed in despite by the admission of both chiefs of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that ‘refugees may be particularly targeted’ by the coronavirus. Admission of refugees continued after the formation of the president's task force on January 29, after the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency on January 30, and even after WHO’s characterization of the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11.

Rush, the Center’s senior researcher and author of the analysis, said, “I am concerned that these refugees were not tested for the coronavirus before their arrival. I couldn't find any indication they were anywhere. Let's assume they were, and the results came back negative (we are told that even if one is tested negative it doesn't mean one is not carrying the virus), were they quarantined upon arrival? Were there any follow-ups to make sure they were fine? Were governors of the states they were placed in (such as California, Washington, Texas, New York, etc.) made aware of such arrivals and risks?”

Read the entire analysis at: https://cis.org/Rush/Refugees-Are-Being-Resettled-Despite-Coronavirus-Outbreak

The analysis suggests that in view of this dramatic health crisis, state and local officials might want to reconsider their relentless commitment to the refugee resettlement program, and finally take advantage of the opportunity given to them by President Trump to have a say in the number of refugees placed into their communities.

The top-10 states where refugees were resettled from January 29, 2020 to March 18, 2020, according to the official U.S. government Refugee Processing Center portal are as follows: California, 341; Washington, 274; Texas, 207; New York, 201; Kentucky, 155; Ohio, 148; Michigan, 118; Illinois, 113; Pennsylvania, 106; and Arizona, 95.