Despite vowing to help them, Trump slashes number of Christian refugees admitted to US

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World News – The number of Christian refugees admitted to the US has reportedly reduced – The number admitted in 2018 dropped from 25,162 the previous year to just 14,289 – Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown and reduction of refugees admitted to the US have been reportedly condemned by religious and immigrant activist groups The number of Christian refugees admitted to the US has dropped under President Donald Trump, along with the rates of other persecuted religious minorities attempting to enter the country, a report by The Independent UK has stated. The newspaper reports that the president repeatedly vowed to defend vulnerable international Christians while on the campaign trail, but his hard-line immigration policies appear to have negatively affected the group he promised to protect. NAIJ.com gathers that a new report indicated there were nearly 11,000 fewer Christian refugees admitted to the US in the past fiscal year than in 2017. READ ALSO: Dogara reportedly picks up PDP nomination form Meanwhile, dozens of Iraqi Christians living in the US have reportedly been detained, as Trump’s administration continues to extend deportations nationwide. Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown and reduction of refugees admitted to the US have been reportedly condemned by religious and immigrant activist groups. “Ironically, these policies, while clearly aimed at Muslim refugees, ensure that Christians and other religious minorities from many of the countries on Trump’s list of suspect travel ban nations are also kept out,” the Refugees Council USA reportedly said in a statement. “It suggests that the president has no real interest in religious persecution or the tenets of religious freedom.” Overall, the number of Christian refugees admitted in 2018 reportedly dropped from 25,162 the previous year to just 14,289, according to State Department data. The administration has, however, reportedly continued its rhetoric towards defending Christian refugees, with Vice President Mike Pence saying the US was ready to stand with those persecuted in the Middle East during a rally last year. “The reality is, across the wider world, the Christian faith is under siege. “And nowhere is this onslaught against our faith more evident than in the very ancient land where Christianity was born,” the vice president was quoted to have said. Recall that the Trump-led government scrapped Obama-era deportation guidelines last year in an effort to speed up the process and rate of undocumented immigrants being removed from the US, despite several clashes in the courts. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union reportedly won an emergency injunction for hundreds of Iraqi who were subject to a scheduled mass deportation. Many of them were Christians and had been living in the country for years. Those Iraqis were then provided with the opportunity to have their separate cases heard by a judge, which would not have happened without the court’s injunction. The administration was also reportedly forced to remove language about prioritising religious minorities from an executive order restricting travel from several Muslim-majority nations. Still, the Trump-led administration has reportedly defended its immigration policies. “The administration has made helping persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East a top priority,” one of the administration’s spokesmen was quoted to have told NBC News. The Independent said the White House did not respond to requests for comment as at the time of filing this report. Read more: https://www.naija.ng/1191977-despite-vowing-trump-slashes-number-christian-refugees-admitted-us.html#1191977