The Trump administration announced on September 17, 2018, that it would limit the number of refugees admitted into the United States in 2019 to 30,000. This is down from 45,000 in 2018 and from 110,000 in the last year of the Obama Administration. According to Secretary of State of Pompeo who announced the decision, there are a total of 800,000 people currently waiting to be approved as refugees into the United States.

The refugees have been granted admission to the United States under the provision of the Refugee Act of 1980. That act accepted the definition of a refugee as that used by the UN for whom is a refugee. Since the law was passed, the United States has always authorized the entry of more than 30,000 refugees. During the Bush administration, the US had authorized 70,000 refugees a year, however, in the year following 9/11 2002, only 27,000 refugees were settled and only 28,000 the following year before resuming a normal annual rate.

Reducing immigration has been a significant policy goal of the Trump Administration, and while illegal immigration has been where the rhetoric has been directed, the administration has been working to decrease legal immigration as well.