Despite President Joe Bidens pledge to overhaul immigration and welcome refugees to the U.S., 2021 is on pace for a record low in refugee admissions.

According to the latest State Department numbers, the U.S. has accepted just 7,637 refugees this year as of Aug. 31 putting it on pace for a historic low, as the fiscal year ends Oct. 1. The refugee cap, a number set by the president outlining the intended number of refugees allowed to enter in a given year, was set as up to 62,500 after pushback by advocates , but the U.S. is unlikely to meet that number by Sept. 30.

The number of admitted refugees could rise before the end of the fiscal year following the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans and the arrival of thousands of Haitians seeking refuge at the southern Texas border. But refugee advocates and lawmakers alike are becoming increasingly frustrated with the administrations slow-moving response to helping refugees and asylum-seekers.

On Monday, the State Department announced that Biden will increase the refugee cap to 125,000 in the next fiscal year, which begins next month. The administration vowed to focus on key vulnerable groups during the 2022 fiscal year, including refugees from Central America, Afghans who worked with the U.S., and Uighurs, members of the predominantly Muslim ethnic group who are facing genocide at the hands of the Chinese government.

With the world facing unprecedented global displacement and humanitarian needs, the United States is committed to leading efforts to provide protection and promote durable solutions to humanitarian crises, to include providing resettlement for the most vulnerable, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday.

Rebuilding A Broken Refugee System

Before the beginning of each fiscal year, the president is federally required to consult with Congress to set and formally sign the presidential determination on refugee admissions the annual ceiling of refugees who are authorized to enter the U.S.

The U.S. led the world in refugee admissions in the decades after the 1980 Refugee Act, resettling more people fleeing their home countries than the rest of the world combined. But those numbers fell dramatically under former President Donald Trump , who slashed the refugee cap each year in office.

In 2016, the U.S. admitted nearly 85,000 refugees, the last full fiscal year of the Obama administration. While Trump, who made refugees a political scapegoat during his tenure, was in office, the refugee cap was steadily slashed every year during his presidency, obliterating the cap from 110,000 set by former President Barack Obama during his last year in office to just 18,000 during the 2020 fiscal year, which was also Trumps last in office. The actual number of refugees admitted that year 12,000 was even lower than the 18,000 ceiling.

In 2018, the U.S no longer led the world in refugee resettlement the first time since 1980.

The Biden administration has since struggled to rebuild the program. Cuts by the Trump administration have forced refugee resettlement agencies to downsize, lay off staff and shutter offices across the country.

The coronavirus pandemic also created problems. Refugees who were approved to travel couldnt leave the country due to lockdown measures and border restrictions. Embassies and consular offices across the globe closed down and stopped conducting interviews and appointments. Vulnerable groups, many of who have fled war or die in economic conditions, were stranded in makeshift shelters and camps, with a lack of access to clean water or space for social distancing.

A State Department spokesperson told HuffPost that the agency has since taken steps to rebuild and enhance the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in line with the Administrations priorities which will enable the agency to support increased admissions numbers in future years.

We are committed to resettling as many eligible refugees as possible. We recognize, however, that we remain constrained by the global pandemic and the operational challenges posed by COVID 19-related restrictions, the spokesperson added.

More recently, the situation in Afghanistan and Bidens hesitancy to formally accept more refugees only piled onto the problem when he missed the deadline to sign the directive by March 2021, forcing hundreds of refugees to cancel their flights to the U.S. as they awaited approval.

When Biden signed the directive weeks later in April 2021, the White House initially announced it would keep Trumps 2020 refugee ceiling of 15,000 and would continue to ban refugees from several Muslim-majority countries including Somalia and Yemen. The move sparked outrage from fellow Democrats and refugee groups, and the president walked back the decision mere hours later, raising the cap to 62,500 for the fiscal year 2021.

Still, the U.S. was poised to admit under 8,000 as of last month.