South Carolina Needs a Refugee Floor

Heavily influenced by the boom-and-busts cycles that have governed the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program over the past decade, South Carolina’s refugee program perfectly illustrates the need for a resettlement minimum.

This isn’t just instability—it’s whiplash. Agencies expand, hire staff, and make promises to families, only to be forced into devastating cuts just months or years later. When refugee admissions swing wildly with each new administration, the consequences aren’t merely bureaucratic: families remain separated across continents, resettlement offices close their doors, and communities lose the capacity to welcome refugees.

A statutory refugee floor—a congressionally mandated minimum number of refugee admissions immune to executive reversal—would end this cycle. It would ensure that no matter who occupies the White House, America maintains a baseline commitment to refugee protection.

South Carolina’s decade of whiplash shows exactly why we need one.

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