CNSI Leader Warns New Refugee Cap Weakens U.S. Global Leadership and National Security

Contact: Roberto Estrada 
restrada@monumentadvocacy.com

WASHINGTON – Council on National Security and Immigration (CNSI) leader Janice Kephart today expressed concern about the Trump Administration’s decision to set the annual refugee admissions cap for Fiscal Year 2026 at a historic low of 7,500. The decision undermines America’s humanitarian values, weakens its strategic standing abroad, and overlooks the economic contributions that refugees bring to communities across the United States.

“The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has long been a pillar of our national security and foreign policy strategy,” said Janice Kephart. “By offering a lawful, vetted pathway for those fleeing violence and persecution, the United States strengthens global stability, supports our allies, and demonstrates the values that differentiate us from our adversaries.

“Refugees are among the most thoroughly screened individuals to enter the United States. Admitting them through structured, secure processes is less of a risk to our national security; it is an investment in it. Refugees rebuild their lives here, start businesses, fill critical workforce shortages, and help revitalize local economies. The current policy approach turns away from decades of bipartisan consensus that recognized the strategic value of refugee admissions as a critical component of U.S. global engagement.

“I urge the Administration to revisit this decision and pursue a sustainable, bipartisan framework for refugee policy that protects our security while upholding our values. Our national security depends on the credibility of our commitments.”

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Leaders of CNSI speak and act solely in their individual capacities, and their views should not be attributed to any organization with which they are affiliated.

About Janice Kephart: Janice is the former border counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States(9/11 Commission) responsible for conducting much of the investigation and founding the terms border security is national security, biometric borders, terrorist travel, and the phrase we must assure that people are who they say they are explained in her and her teammates’ monograph, 9/11 and Terrorist Travel.

Subsequently, Janice was invited to testify before the UN Security Council and the US Congress 19 times on issues including identity, biometrics, visa and border policies, REAL ID. Prior to the 9/11 Commission, she spearheaded the drafting and passage of two federal laws unanimously passed and signed into law, one digitizing identity theft and the other that enabled information-sharing on millennial cyber solutions while Senate Judiciary Committee counsel to Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). In 2013, after testifying on the national security ramifications of the Gang of 13 immigration bill, she accepted a position from Sen. Sessions (R-AL) as a Senate Judiciary Senior Counsel. Read more here.

About CNSI: The Council on National Security and Immigration is a group of American national security leaders who believe immigration reforms are imperative to bolster and maintain the United States’ global leadership in the 21st century. Find out more here: www.cnsiusa.org