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Biden admin to accept 100k Ukrainian refugees, reportedly seeking loopholes to sidestep 2022 cap

March 24, 2022 | | Print Article

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The White House announced early Thursday that the Biden administration intends to level further sanctions against Russia and also take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, or over eight times more refugees total than were admitted during former President Donald Trump’s final year in office.

The admin is also looking to use two loopholes — America’s parole system, in addition to immigrant and non-immigrant visas — to prevent the full 100,000 refugees from being counted toward the president’s 125,000 refugee cap for 2022, according to senior administration officials who spoke with Fox News.

The administration has reportedly used the same loophole to funnel in Afghan refugees.

“Separately, more than 76,000 Afghan nationals who have arrived through Operation Allies Welcome have now joined their new communities across the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security. A majority of those Afghans received parole for humanitarian reasons — an avenue that the White House is considering for Ukrainians as well,” according to Politico.

The administration also announced sanctions against the Russian State Duma i.e., the elites who comprise the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. They’re basically equivalent to U.S. House members.

“Officials also announced that the U.S. will be imposing sanctions on the Russian elite group known as the Duma and 300 of its members, as well as more than 40 Russian defense companies,” according to Fox News.

“As a backup measure, the European Union will also be imposing a sanctions evasion initiative to keep Russia from getting around the new U.S. sanctions. The EU initiative includes closing loopholes like the Russian Central Bank propping up their currency, and utilizing a coalition of countries to keep Russia from acquiring new technologies or from having other banks do business for them.”

In a statement, one of the unnamed officials said, “In all cases we’ll use this initiative to share information, and coordinate our responses to prevent the emergence of any safe haven for Russia, whether it’s in China or any other country. Our purpose now is to fully disarm its war chest by making sure its foreign reserves serve no purpose in propping up the Russian currency.”

It’s not clear how the United States and the EU will be able “to prevent the emergence of” a safe haven in China, which has already jumped through hoops to provide Russia support amid its current embattled state — and which has done so despite the Biden administration warning them of “consequences” for helping.

“China’s oil refiners are discreetly purchasing cheap Russian crude as the nation’s supply continues to seep into the market,” Bloomberg has confirmed.

“Unlike India’s state-run oil refiners, which have issued a number of tenders seeking to buy Russia’s flagship Urals crude among other grades, traders say China’s state processors are negotiating privately under the radar with sellers. The nation’s independent refiners are also quietly buying, according to traders who asked not to be identified as the information is confidential.”

Chinese state media officials meanwhile have accused the Biden administration of acting like “a global policeman/bully.”

These reports come amid President Joe Biden’s trip to Europe — but not Ukraine — to speak with his NATO allies about Ukraine.

Meeting in Brussels, they’ve been “discussing the possibility of providing [Ukraine with] anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast,” as reported by the Associated Press.

All this in turn comes amid more threats of nuclear war from Russia.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly wrote a social media post this week claiming that America wants Russia “humiliated, limited, shaken, divided and destroyed.”

He reportedly added that if America is successful in its “primitive game,” the “result” will be “the largest nuclear power with an unstable political regime, weak leadership, a collapsed economy and the maximum number of nuclear warheads aimed at targets in the US and Europe.”

Vivek Saxena
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