Trump's Travel Ban And Refugees: What Happened And What's Next

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 3/6/2017, 2:45 p.m.
Take Two of President Donald Trump's travel ban could once again bring refugee resettlement in the United States grinding to …
President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference Thursday, February 16, 2017.(File)

(CNN) -- Take Two of President Donald Trump's travel ban could once again bring refugee resettlement in the United States grinding to a halt.

Like the executive order Trump signed in January, the version he signed Monday calls for a four-month pause in the refugee resettlement program.

Here's a look at what's happened with refugee resettlement since January, and what could happen next.

What's happened since the first travel ban

• Federal court decisions in February temporarily blocked the provision in Trump's original executive order that halted refugee resettlement. That allowed a new wave of refugees to come to the United States.

• According to the Refugee Processing Center, 4,355 refugees (1,764 cases) have arrived in the United States in the past month. The month before Trump's inauguration, 6,197 refugees (2,385 cases) arrived.

• For weeks, refugee organizations have been sounding alarm bells over one provision in the first travel ban that still stands, no matter what officials do next: The Trump administration has reduced the total number of refugees to be admitted to the United States in fiscal year 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000.

• So far some 37,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States this fiscal year, which began in October and ends September 30. "So there's not many slots left for the rest of the fiscal year," said Melanie Nezer, vice president for policy and advocacy at HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting refugees.

• This reduction in refugee admittances has already had an impact on the organizations that help resettle them. One such group, World Relief, announced last month that it was laying off more than 140 people and closing five local offices as a result of the travel ban.

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