In one of the darkest moments of our history, Obama closed the doors on real refugees, the persecuted Christians of the Middle East, while opening it wide for Muslim migrants. While everything is far from fixed, the trend is improving.
More Christian than Muslim refugees have been admitted to the United States in the first months of the Trump administration, reversing a trend that had seen Muslims outnumber Christians in the final fiscal year under President Barack Obama, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. State Department refugee data has found.
From Donald Trump’s first full day in office on Jan. 21 through June 30, 9,598 Christian refugees arrived in the U.S., compared with 7,250 Muslim refugees. Christians made up 50% of all refugee arrivals in this period, compared with 38% who are Muslim. Some 11% of these arrivals belong to other religions, while about 1% claim no religious affiliation.
The religious composition of refugees to the U.S. has been shifting on a monthly basis as well. In February, Trump’s first full month in office, Muslims accounted for 50% of the 4,580 refugees who entered the U.S., and Christians made up 41% of arrivals. By June, Christians (57%) made up a larger share of arrivals than Muslims (31%).
This stands in contrast to fiscal 2016, when a record number of Muslim refugees entered the U.S. and Muslims made up a higher share of admitted refugees than Christians (46% vs. 44%, respectively). However, the shift in the religious composition of refugees since January falls in line with longer-term trends: Between fiscal years 2002 and 2016, Christians outnumbered Muslim refugees in all but three years – 2005, 2006 and 2016.
That's because Christians were and are legitimate refugees. The shift toward Muslim migrant majority was a political move. And despite illegal judicial activism, the shift toward refugees over migrants continues to increase.