Persecuted Christians who try to bypass new Trump administration caps on refugees by claiming asylum at the U.S. border will be turned away, Citizenship and Immigration Services acting Director Ken Cuccinelli said Friday.
"We'll turn them back," Cuccinelli told reporters outside the White House, The Washington Examiner reports, a day after the administration said it would allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the U.S. next fiscal year.
The number is the lowest in the history of the modern refugee program and more than half of those allowed in the current fiscal year.
Under the fiscal 2020 caps, 4,000 slots will be for Iraqis who served in the U.S. military, 1,500 for Central Americans, 5,000 for religiously persecuted people and 7,500 slots that do not have a specific designation, the Examiner reports.
Cuccinelli said persecuted Christians who walk across the southern U.S. border to claim asylum would be ineligible under a new administration policy that would deny asylum to those entering the U.S. after first reaching Mexico.
But Cuccinelli got into a testy exchange with a reporter over how the new cap would affect persecuted Christians seeking refuge in the United States.
"Are you saying that there's only room in America for, say, 5000 persecuted Christians in the world who might want to come here?" the reporter asked.
"I take issue with how you ask your alleged question, rather in the form of an accusation," Cuccinelli responded. "The refugee cap was divided in a way that reflects America's priorities.
"It doesn't mean that there aren't millions of refugees around the world," he said.
The reporter asked variations of the question twice — and Cuccinelli then said: "Sorry, you've asked questions."
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