WASHINGTON — On October 17, President-elect Donald Trump announced on the campaign trail in Iowa that the United States would not accept refugees from Gaza. “We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza,” he said during a rally in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines.

The United Nations reports that as of October 2024, Israel's war in Gaza has displaced 1.9 million people, nearly the entire population of 2.2 million. Over the past two decades, the U.S. has admitted only about 2,000 refugees from Palestine, according to data compiled last year by the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute.

When Migrant Insider asked a dozen lawmakers last week whether the U.S. should accept refugees from Gaza, most sidestepped the question, particularly in the Senate. Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), the newly elected chair of the Senate Democrats' strategic communications committee, declined to comment.

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“I’m gonna pass for now,” said Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) when we asked him on Wednesday. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a former chair of the Judiciary Committee—which, along with the Homeland Security Committee, oversees immigration policy—offered a similarly cautious response. “It’s not that I don’t wanna answer that, I can’t answer that because I don’t know,” Grassley said, adding, “I don’t know enough about the issue.”

Some Senate Democrats were more open to the possibility. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), the retiring chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Migrant Insider that the U.S. should welcome Gaza refugees “if they qualify.” Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) echoed that view in a hallway interview, saying, “President Trump says a lot of things, but we’ll see what they implement.”

Support for Gaza refugees was more apparent in the House of Representatives. “They should, definitely,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) when asked if the U.S. should admit refugees from Gaza. “People who receive refugee status should be welcomed in countries that are signed off to receive them. I don’t think there should be discrimination of that kind,” she said.

Rep. Adrian Espaillat (D-NY), the incoming chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, offered remarks similar to Omar and Cardin: “Asylum seekers have to meet a certain threshold and if they meet it, as others have, I think they should be let in.”