The Council for Global Equality Slams Trump Administration’s Callous Refugee
Admissions Cap and Calls for the Protection of LGBTQI+ Refugees
October 31, 2025
Washington, DC – In response to the publication of the White House’s Presidential
Determination on refugee admissions for Fiscal Year 2026 (PD) in the Federal Register, the
Council for Global Equality – alongside several member organizations, including Human Rights
First, Immigration Equality, and the Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration (ORAM) –
decried the refugee admissions goal and its life-threatening impacts for LGBTQI+ refugees
awaiting resettlement to the United States. The PD, which is set at a historic low of 7,500
individuals, prioritizes white South Africans (Afrikaners) and “victims of illegal or unjust
discrimination” – the Trump administration’s catch phrase to offer protection to far-right
extremists – in a blatant attempt to politicize the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, erode our
nation’s legal obligations, and reject our historical commitments to the most vulnerable.
This announcement comes on top of the Trump administration’s already devastating freeze of
the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in effect since January 27, 2025. A report released in
June by Immigration Equality, Human Rights First, the Council for Global Equality, the
Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration (ORAM), and Rainbow Railroad, details how
the suspension of the refugee admissions program has already left LGBTQI+ refugees facing
dire and escalating dangers. One lesbian couple from Afghanistan has been left in limbo in
Pakistan, a country where consensual, same-sex sexual activity is illegal, due to the suspension
of the refugee resettlement program. The couple remains at constant risk of deportation back to
life-threatening danger. Camilla, a transgender Somali woman who was awaiting resettlement to
the United States, was brutally murdered in Kenya in early 2025 following the freeze. With the
new refugee admissions cap, many other LGBTQI+ refugees who have fled persecution and
violence will continue to face uncertainty in precarious and unsafe conditions.
“Rather than resettling those fleeing persecution and living in the most dangerous situations, the
White House is instead choosing to play politics with the lives of the most vulnerable, including
LGBTQI+ refugees,” said Mark Bromley, Co-Chair of the Council for Global Equality. “This
unconscionably low cap is just the latest example of the Trump administration’s racist and
xenophobic policies meant to gut the U.S. refugee system and harm marginalized communities.
Undoubtedly, the Trump administration’s actions will be a death sentence for many LGBTQI+
refugees awaiting resettlement that continue to face violence, detention, and death simply for
who they are and whom they love. We urge Congress to maintain longstanding U.S.
commitments to refugees and call on other governments around the world to immediately open
additional pathways to resettlement for LGBTQI+ refugees.”
“This presidential determination is a national disgrace and yet another new low for this
administration,” said Uzra Zeya, President and CEO of Human Rights First. “It endangers the
lives of refugees in dire need of resettlement around the world. All too often LGBTQI people
who escape persecution in their home countries are targeted again in neighboring countries.
The lives of real people are on the line. Members of Congress must demand that the
administration restore this vital lifeline.”
“The Trump administration’s decision to put a cap of only 7,500 refugees for the year will have
mortal consequences for thousands of LGBTQI+ refugees,” said Aaron C. Morris, Executive
Director of Immigration Equality. “LGBTQI+ refugees are often forced to live in nations where
they are arrested, harmed, or killed for being who they are. They urgently need a pathway to
safety right now. The United States should be a beacon of hope for LGBTQI+ people, not a
nation that tolerates oppression. In the past, the U.S. has agreed to resettle up to 125,000
refugees in a single year. Dropping that number to such a small fraction is shameful. Congress
must act immediately to insist that the cap be substantially increased.”
“The Trump administration’s decision to slash the U.S. refugee admissions ceiling to just 7,500
is not only a moral failure—it’s a deliberate abandonment of the world’s most vulnerable. For
LGBTIQ refugees fleeing persecution, violence and even death, this isn’t an abstract policy
change but a life-and-death crisis,” said Steve Roth, Executive Director of ORAM. “This
cynical approach not only betrays the promise of the U.S. refugee program but stains the
country’s identity as a haven of safety. ORAM stands together with its partners in the Council for
Global Equality in condemning this decision and calling on the United States to immediately
restore a resettlement ceiling that reflects both our values and the global imperative for
protection of the most vulnerable.”
The Council for Global Equality is a coalition of 45 prominent U.S.based organizations, each
standing at the intersection of human rights and LGBTQI+ equality in the United States and
overseas.
*For press inquiries, please contact Matthew Bocanumenth at
matthew@globalequality.org.
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