The Year The U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Unraveled
Migrant rights advocates warn that President Trump's attempts to shut down the refugee resettlement program will have long-term consequences.
Last year began with an angry phone call about refugees, famously leaked later. The newly inaugurated Donald Trump exploded when Australia's prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, asked him to honor a U.S. pledge to resettle some 1,200 refugees from Australia's offshore detention centers.
"This is a stupid deal," Trump fumed to an astonished Turnbull. "This shows me to be a dope."
A day earlier, the president had signed an executive order temporarily halting the entire U.S. refugee resettlement program and slashed the number of expected arrivals President Obama had set.
Trump complained that by honoring the deal with Australia he was "going to get killed" politically
