US surpasses Trump’s 50,000 refugee limit for 2017

The State Department announced Wednesday that the United States has surpassed its cap of 50,000 refugee admissions for the fiscal year.

In fact, between the start of the budget year in October and Wednesday, 50,086 refugees have been allowed into the country, the Washington Examiner reported.

The number of refugees allowed into the U.S. is set each year by the president. Originally, former President Barack Obama increased the number from 85,000 in 2016 to 110,000 this year. However, when President Donald Trump took the reins, he slashed the total number of refugee admissions to 50,000 as part of his executive order blocking travel from six Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspending the refugee resettlement program for 120 days.

A Supreme Court order late last month allowed the White House to partially implement Trump’s embattled travel ban, meaning the 50,000-refugee cap could be implemented. That order, though, also stipulated that those who can prove a “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity in the U.S. must be allowed into the country.

The administration will continue to accept people beyond its 50,000-refugee cap because of the high court’s order.

The White House has defined a “bona fide relationship” to mean those with close family members only: Parents, siblings, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, spouses, and engaged partners, according to The Washington Post.

The rule excludes grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and brothers- and sisters-in-law.

News about the State Department reaching its 50,000-refugee cap follows a report from the Pew Research Center revealing that more Christian refugees than Muslim refugees entered the U.S. in the first five months of the Trump administration.

The statistics mark a shift away from the previous White House administration. Under Obama, a majority of the refugees admitted into the country were Muslim. From Jan. 21, Trump’s first full day as president, through June, more than 9,500 Christian refugees entered the U.S., compared to the 7,250 Muslim refugees who came into the country.

In February, Trump’s first full month in the Oval Office, Muslims accounted for 50 percent of the total refugees who entered the U.S., while Christians made up 41 percent of the arrivals.

But the trend had changed by June, when Christians made up 57 percent of the refugees entering the country while Muslims only accounted for 31 percent.