Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2018

Policy effect

Established the statutory ceiling on refugee admissions to the United States at up to 45,000 for Fiscal Year 2018 and set regional quota allocations across Africa, East Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and Near East/South Asia. Phase scope: Applies to worldwide refugee admissions processed during FY 2018 (October 1, 2017 – September 30, 2018).

Conditions and exceptions

Validated condition or limit: Established the statutory ceiling on refugee admissions to the United States at up to 45,000 for Fiscal Year 2018 and set regional quota allocations across Africa, East Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and Near East/South Asia.

Official source excerpt

Quoted verbatim from the official source below. Ellipses indicate omitted text.

… vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “Act”) (8 U.S.C. 1157), after appropriate consultations with the Congress, and consistent with the Report on Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2018 submitted to the Congress on September 27, 2017, I hereby determine and authorize as follows: The admission of up to 45,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest. This number includes persons … admitted to the United States during FY 2018 with Federal refugee resettlement assistance under the Amerasian immigrant admissions program, as provided below. The admissions shall be allocated among refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States in accordance with the following regional allocations: Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,000 East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000 Europe and Central Asia . . . . . . . . 2,000 Latin America/Caribbean . . . . . . . . 1,500 Near East/South Asia . . . . . . . . . 17,500 The number of admissions allocated to the East Asia region … section 2(b)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (22 U.S.C. 2601(b)), I hereby determine that assistance to or on behalf of persons applying for admission to the United States as part of the overseas refugee admissions program will contribute to the foreign policy interests of the United States, and I accordingly designate such persons for this purpose. Consistent with section 101(a)(42) of the Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 (a)(42)), and after appropriate consultation with the Congress, I also specify that, for FY 2018, the following persons may, if otherwise qualified, be considered refugees …

Review method

Two separate automated exact-claim source reviews

Other United States changes operative in 2017

• 2017-01-17Retention of EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers
• 2017-01-25Executive Order 13767: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements
• 2017-01-25Executive Order 13768: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States
• 2017-01-27Executive Order 13769 (Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States)
• 2017-03-04Yemen TPS beneficiaries continuously residing in the U.S.
• 2017-03-31Rescission of Guidance Memo on H-1B Computer Related Positions (PM-602-0142)
• 2017-06-12Citizenship transmission requires longer US presence for unwed mothers
• 2017-09-05Rescission of the June 15, 2012 Memorandum Entitled “Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children”
• 2017-11-08Matter of G- Inc., Adopted Decision 2017-05