On the same day the Senate passed a foreign aid bill that infuriated some GOP lawmakers because it does nothing to secure America’s southern border, the Biden Administration announced that it will soon open two new immigration field offices at Doha, Qatar and Ankara, Turkey aimed at processing refugees from the Middle East.
“Opening these field offices establishes a [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] presence and expertise in critical locations in the Middle East and is part of our commitment to the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to facilitate safe, lawful, and orderly migration and family reunification,” the director of the USCIS, Ur M. Jaddou, said in a statement.
The offices, set to open in early May, will help process refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. The administration has set a ceiling for refugee admissions in 2024 at 125,000 refugees.
The announcement, the day before President Biden signed into law a bill aimed at providing foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, enraged Republican lawmakers who voted against the measure because it did not make any provisions for border security. Among those complaining about the new offices is Senator Rubio.
“Not only did the “foreign aid” bill that passed yesterday do nothing about the mass migration invasion of America, it provided over $3.5 billion to help bring migrants from the Middle East to America,” Mr. Rubio said in a tweet.
An early version of the foreign aid package was pitched in the Senate as a bipartisan deal that included foreign aid that Democrats wanted and a plethora of Republican backed border policies as a sweetener for Republicans. President Trump, however, whipped Republicans to oppose the bill, paving the way for the version that passed without border security provisions.
After the two new offices are opened, the USCIS will have a total of 11 overseas offices processing refugee applications. Other locations include Beijing; Guangzhou, China; Guatemala City; Havana; Mexico City; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
