The State Department announced Wednesday that the country had hit its cap of 50,000 refugee admissions for the fiscal year.
Refugees scheduled to travel Wednesday would be allowed to proceed before travel ban restrictions kick in the next day, the department said in a statement.
The cap is set each year by the president. President Obama increased it from 85,000 in 2016 to 110,000 this year.
But President Trump knocked it down to 50,000 as part of his executive order banning travel from six majority-Muslim countries for 90 days and suspending refugee resettlement for 120 days.
The order still leaves open a path for some refugees to enter the country. Because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, those with "bona fide" relationships to the U.S. will still be allowed in.
What qualifies as a "bona fide" connection, though, has become the subject of a legal battle.
The administration includes parents, spouses, children, adult sons or daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, siblings, fiances or fiancees, and in-law parents.
But it excludes grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers- and sisters-in-law.
The administration also says it won't count resettlement agencies as U.S. connections.
Refugee resettlement agencies have gone to court to expand who qualifies.
They say the administration's policies will prevent thousands of refugees who lack family in the country but have already passed U.S. vetting from relocating.
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
