President Trump, in just eight months in office, has succeeded in upending U.S. refugee policy, cutting by more than half the 110,000-refugee target that the Obama administration had bequeathed him and dramatically shifting the demographics of who is accepted.Gone is President Obama's overwhelming focus on Muslims, and particularly on Syrians fleeing a civil war that his administration facilitated. Under Mr. Trump, the rate of Syrian refugees has been cut by more than 80 percent, and Christians have overtaken Muslims in total refugees resettled.
"It's impossible to escape the clear message that there's a new sheriff in town," said Matthew O'Brien, research director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter refugee controls.
The Trump changes have reverberated around the globe, with the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees drastically cutting the number of refugee candidates it submits to the U.S.
After recommending nearly 35,000 refugee candidates last year, the UNHCR submitted just 3,591 applications from January to July.