Will Congress Welcome Refugees From Gaza?

"I don’t think there should be discrimination of that kind," said Rep. Ilhan Omar.

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.