Trump administration announces refugee cuts hours after racist attack on Ilhan Omar

Move would see only 15,000 refugees admitted in 2021

Trump announces refugee cuts just hours after latest racist attack on Ilhan Omar (Getty Images)

Donald Trump announced he was cutting refugee admission a new record-low just hours after his latest racist attack on Ilhan Omar.

The move by the White House will see the number of refugees allowed in 2021 to 15,000, which is 3,000 less than the 2020 figure.

The announcement came after Trump decried refugees in a campaign stop in Duluth, Minnesota, in which he falsely claimed his rival Joe Biden wants to flood the country with immigrants.

“Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp, and he said that, overwhelming public resources, overcrowding schools and inundating hospitals,” said the president.

“You know that. It’s already there. It’s a disgrace what they’ve done to your state.”

Mr Biden says he wants to increase the limit to 125,000 refugees a year.

Mr Trump also vilified Minnesota representative Ms Omar, who came to the US in 1995 at the age of 12 from Somalia and who has been a citizen for 20 years.

The president questioned the standing of Miss Omar, who has been a vocal critic of his, as an American as he falsely accused her campaign of ballot harvesting.

“Harvesting is terrible, but it’s the least of things that she has done,” Mr. Trump said.

“Then she tells us how to run our country, can you believe it? How the hell did Minnesota elect her? What the hell is wrong with you people, right? What the hell happened?”

Minnesota has not been won by a Republican since 1972 and polls show Mr Biden has a strong lead over Mr Trump in the state.

Hillary Clinton won the state by less than 2 per cent in 2016.