Kushner, Descendant Of Refugees, Defends Trump Slashing Asylum-Seeking Entries
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said it “doesn’t make a difference” whether the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States has been significantly lowered by President Trump.
Kushner, whose grandparents arrived in the country after fleeing the Holocaust, shared his views on immigration with “Axios on HBO” on Sunday.
He said his family’s survival from “the precipice of life and death” showed “how great this country is.” But he followed that with a caveat — when it comes to the hundreds of thousand of refugees seeking entry, “You can’t have all of them come into your country.”
Kushner said he supported Trump, his father-in-law, in his decision to further slash the cap on refugees. The number is now the lowest its been in 40 years, Axios reported.
“I think the amount of money you can spend to help refugees to resettle in their countries and deal with aid is very impactful,” Kushner answered.
The White House’s current budget proposal calls for a 90% cut to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, which handles refugee issues.
Last year, in an effort to change the asylum policies, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the immigration organization that helped Kushner’s grandparents settle into the U.S., tried to share with Kushner his grandparents’ immigration files. The organization’s CEO said that Kushner never got back to them.
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!