(The Center Square) – A hurdle to adding the final country to the list of temporary protected status terminations has been eliminated as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration, with refugee numbers at a record low.
A Boston judge, Brian Murphy, lifted a final administrative stay, ending TPS for over 5,000 Ethiopians in the U.S. under the program, marking the 13th country with TPS status to be terminated in President Donald Trump’s second term.
Those countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security argued in a social media post that the program “was used as a defacto amnesty program,” adding “those days are over” as the agency warns those with terminated TPS status are now in the country “illegally” and “they must leave now or be swiftly deported.”
The news comes as the Pew Research Center released a new report showing that the U.S. government has admitted the fewest refugees, potentially eclipsing COVID-era figures.
During the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026, the government has admitted 10,258 refugees: 10,255 from South Africa and three from Afghanistan. It’s down from 38,102 in fiscal year 2025 and 100,034 in fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2025, the majority of refugees were from Afghanistan; in 2024, the majority came from the Congo, followed by Afghanistan.
In addition to the lower numbers. The Trump administration has lowered the ceiling set for admissions to 17,500, meaning the administration could still admit over 7,000 refugees before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Pew notes the “ceiling is the lowest that the U.S. government has had since at least the turn of the century.”
Pew added that the U.S. has been the world leader in accepting refugees since World War II, with the U.S. “consistently ranked among the world’s top two countries for resettling refugees.”
However, the U.S. now admits fewer refugees than Canada and Australia, according to Pew, citing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
According to a 2018 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, at the time, the annual cost to taxpayers was $1.8 billion, ballooning to $8.8 billion over five years, attributing those numbers to refugees’ access to welfare and other government assistance programs, estimating the cost per refugee coming under $79,600 during their first five years as a refugee in the U.S.
The Center Square previously reported that many refugees qualified for over a dozen costly federal benefits, highlighting that hundreds of thousands of refugees admitted during the Biden administration from countries such as Afghanistan and Somalia resulted in skyrocketing funding for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance programs.
The funding rose from less than $2 billion in fiscal year 2021, the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term, to nearly $9 billion the next fiscal year – the first year of former President Joe Biden’s administration. The influx of Afghan refugees contributed significantly to the substantial increase in refugee funding.
The benefits refugees are eligible to receive include: Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infants and Children (WIC), HUD Public Housing and Section 8 housing vouchers, emergency Medicaid, Affordable Care Act health plans and subsidies, full-scope Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), federal student aid and Pell grants, REAL ID, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act services, refugee resettlement programs through the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), according to the National Immigration Law Center.
For those who didn’t qualify for SSI or TANF, refugees were eligible for up to 12 months of Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) through the ORR.
In addition, many refugees qualified for employment assistance through Refugee Support Services, which included: childcare, transportation, “employability services,” job training and preparation, job search assistance, placement and retention, English language training, translation and interpreter services, and case management, according to the Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The ORR also noted that “some clients may be eligible for specialized programs such as health services, technical assistance for small business start-ups and financial savings.” Many refugees also qualified for “immigration-related legal assistance” to assist them “on their pathway to obtaining a permanent status.”
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