Blinken says it would be 'very hard' to meet 62,500 refugee cap this year

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that it would be "very hard" to meet the 62,000 refugee cap pledged by President Joe Biden, arguing that the refugee system that was in place when the administration came in lacked "the means to effectively process as many people as we hoped."

"I think what the President has and the White House has said today is that based on what we've now seen from in terms of the inheritance and being able to look at what was in place, what we could put in place, how quickly we could put it in place, it's going to be very hard to meet the 62,000 this fiscal year," Blinken told ABC News, adding that a Trump-era policy prohibition on refugees from the Middle East and Africa "has now been lifted," and refugees in the pipeline are now eligible to seek asylum in the US. Pressed on whether the administration would accept 125,000 refugees next year, Blinken replied: "Look, the President's been clear about where he wants to go, but we have to be, you know, focused on what we're able to do when we're able to do it."