The Trump administration is considering further cuts to the U.S. refugee program, potentially capping the total number of refugees admitted each year at 15,000 or lower.

“The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday, when White House officials plan to convene a high-level meeting to discuss the annual number of refugee admissions for the coming year, as determined by President Trump … Advocates of the nearly 40-year-old refugee program inside and outside the administration fear that approach would effectively starve the operation out of existence, making it impossible to resettle even those narrow populations,” Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear write in The New York Times.

Media, please be on the lookout later today for details of a press call we are hosting tomorrow on this subject.

Over the weekend I penned an op-ed for FoxNews.com on how the president’s asylum policies are harming refugee families – and all Americans. And, a dispatch from my time last week in rural Honduras, “The most dangerous walk.”

Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

HUMAN TRAFFICKING – State Department data show that under the Trump administration, prosecutions against human trafficking crimes are down while “assistance to victims” has also been reduced, Stef W. Kight and Juliet Bartz report in Axios. “Anti-immigrant sentiment has also compounded the problem, as many victims of human trafficking come from other nations. … Federal officials are also denying more ‘T visas,’ which are for trafficking victims who cooperate with law enforcement.”

HUNGARY FOR IMMIGRANTS – Despite fiercely anti-immigrant rhetoric from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s labor shortage has led the nation to adopt some of “Europe’s most liberal” immigration policies, The Wall Street Journal’s Bojan Pancevski and Adam Bihari report. “About a year ago, Mr. Orbán’s government began expediting work permits, a move to attract qualified foreign workers who might have otherwise been drawn to more affluent nations in Western Europe. … Some 50,000 foreigners held work permits in Hungary in 2018 when the new rules kicked in, a 43% increase from the previous year, according to government statistics.”

CARDINAL O’MALLEY – In April of 2014, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese, “led a delegation of bishops from around the country and Mexico” to celebrate Mass a few feet from the U.S.-Mexico border. In an op-ed for today’s Boston Globe, Cardinal O’Malley writes that “Developing positive solutions does not seem to be the motivating concern of existing policy. … The targets in this case are not an armed array of hostile attackers. They are women, children, families.”

GREEN CARD BACKLOG – Annual limits on green cards for immigrants from particular countries of origin have created a backlog of “roughly 1 million people” – mostly from India – waiting to receive the permanent residency that they have already been approved for. Lindsay Wise at The Wall Street Journal describes the “political morass” this has created: “The issue pits industries against each other as they seek to expedite permanent residency for workers they say they need at a time when little suggests that the overall number of green cards issued will rise.”

HOUSTON ACTIVIST – Roland Gramajo, an undocumented immigrant and father of five American children, is a revered community activist in Houston. A high school prank in 1996 led to a misdemeanor charge and Gramajo’s eventual deportation in 2004. When he returned, he “settled into his old life,” building a small business and leading the community – until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested him last week. The Houston Chronicle’s Lomi Kriel reports that according to a statement from ICE, Gramajo’s sudden detention is the result of an anonymous tip, not because he “personally asked representatives with [ICE] to speak at a Sharpstown community forum.”

BLOOMBERG SAYS – On Sunday, the Bloomberg Editorial Board strongly condemned the Trump administration’s diversion of billions in military funds to support construction of a wall at the southern border. “This is worse than just budget gimmickry. Weigh the value of the wall against some of the programs that Trump is deferring or potentially eliminating: updating the ground infrastructure for the Minuteman III ballistic missile, training and equipping Afghan security forces, dismantling chemical weapons, or improving radar for airborne warning planes.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali