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Introduction

Until recently, the United States was the worlds top country for refugee admissions. From taking in hundreds of thousands of Europeans displaced by World War II to welcoming those escaping from communist regimes in Europe and Asia during the Cold War, the United States has helped define protections for refugees under international humanitarian law. Beginning in 1980, the U.S. government moved from an ad hoc approach to the permanent, standardized system for identifying, vetting, and resettling prospective refugees that is still in use today.

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The size of the U.S. refugee program has often fluctuated. The war in Syria and the resulting migration crisis in Europe increased policymakers scrutiny of arrivals from the Middle East, beginning with the administration of President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump ratcheted up that scrutiny with a ban on refugees from certain countries and sharp cuts to overall refugee admissions, sparking new debate over the national security implications of refugee policy. As conflict in places such as Afghanistan and Ukraine displaces millions of people, President Joe Biden has pledged to rebuild the U.S. refugee program.

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Refugees and Displaced Persons

United States

Donald Trump

Immigration and Migration

Joe Biden

There are several different terms used to describe people who move from one place to another, either voluntarily or under threat of force. With no universal legal definition, migrant is an umbrella term for people who leave their homes and often cross international borders, whether to seek economic opportunity or escape persecution.

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As defined by U.S. law and the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugees are migrants seeking entry from a third country who are able to demonstrate that they have been persecuted, or have reason to fear persecution, on the basis of one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. According to the UN refugee agency, there were nearly twenty-one million refugees worldwide as of mid-2021, more than half of whom came from just four countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar, in descending order.

Asylum seekers are those who meet the criteria for refugee status but apply from within the United States, or at ports of entry, after arriving under a different status. Asylum seekers follow a different protocol than those applying for refugee status.

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For more than seventy-five years, the United States has accepted migrants who would be identified under current international law as refugees. In the wake of World War II, the United States passed its first refugee legislation to manage the resettlement of some 650,000 displaced Europeans. Throughout the Cold War, the United States accepted refugees fleeing from communist regimes, such as those in China, Cuba, and Eastern Europe.

But the countrys official federal effort to resettle refugees, known as the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), was not created until passage of the Refugee Act of 1980. Prior to 1980, legislation that authorized the acceptance of refugees was passed primarily on an ad hoc basis, often responding to ongoing mass migrations. It was not until after the fall of South Vietnam to communist forces in 1975, when the United States began taking in hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees, that Congress established a more standardized system.

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Refugees and Displaced Persons

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Donald Trump

Immigration and Migration

Joe Biden

The 1980 legislation, signed by President Jimmy Carter, established permanent procedures for vetting, admitting, and resettling refugees into the country; incorporated the official definition of the term refugee; increased the number of refugees to be admitted annually to fifty thousand; and granted the president authority to admit additional refugees in emergencies. Since that law was passed, the United States has admitted more than three million refugees.

The number of refugees admitted into the United States annually has generally declined from more than 200,000 at the start of the program in 1980 to approximately 11,400 in 2021. Levels of refugee admissions fluctuated dramatically throughout that time period, falling through the 1980s and spiking again in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Annual numerical ceilings on refugee admissions are proposed by the president and require congressional approval. Following the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush suspended refugee admissions for several months, citing national security concerns. From 2001 to 2015, caps on refugee admissions stayed between seventy thousand and eighty thousand, though both the Bush and Obama administrations regularly admitted fewer people than the ceilings allowed.

In 2016, President Obama increased an earlier approved ceiling of eighty thousand to allow in an additional five thousand refugees as part of an effort to address a growing migration crisis caused by worsening conflict in Syria. As humanitarian crises elsewhere grew more dire, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama proposed that the United States set a ceiling of 110,000 refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017.

President Trump reversed Obamas proposed ceiling by capping the number of refugees allowed into the country in fiscal year 2017 at fifty thousand. He lowered this ceiling further to forty-five thousand for 2018, then thirty thousand for 2019, and 18,000 for 2020. His administration argued that the reduction was necessary to direct more government resources to the backlog of applications from nearly eight hundred thousand asylum seekers who had reached the southern U.S. border. Despite critics countering that the asylum and refugee programs have little bearing on one another, Trump set an even lower ceiling of fifteen thousand for fiscal year 2021by far the lowest cap since the programs start.

President Biden has promised to reverse this downward trend. In May 2021, he revised the annual admissions cap to 62,500 for the remainder of the year, and in October, he doubled the ceiling for fiscal year 2022 to 125,000, with the majority of admission slots allocated to refugees from Africa and Southeast Asia. Even so, it is unclear how quickly Trump-era reductions can be reversed. The United States accepted fewer than twelve thousand refugees in 2021; some advocacy groups argue that the annual cap should proportionately reflect the number of refugees worldwide.

The United States has consistently received refugees from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, though the total number of admissions has changed dramatically for some regions in the time since the U.S. refugee resettlement program was created. Immediately following passage of the 1980 act, more than two hundred thousand refugeesthe highest total in recent historywere admitted to the country; the vast majority originated in Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia and Vietnam.

Refugees admitted to the United States from former Soviet countries increased sharply in the decade beginning in 1989. From 2010 to 2020, the highest number of refugees came from Myanmar, Iraq, and Bhutan, in descending order. By comparison, in 2021, the countries with the highest number of refugees admitted to the United States were the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, in descending order.

In 2017, Trump issued an executive order that temporarily prohibited the entry of nationals of seven Muslim-majority countriesIran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemenand indefinitely barred all Syrian refugees. (Admissions for Syrians restarted in January 2018.) The executive order also tightened visa restrictions that had been imposed under Obama on those seven countries. The Trump administration revised the order twice amid legal challenges, until April 2018, when the Supreme Court allowed the third version of the order to stand.

Trump also heavily criticized a resettlement deal with Australia finalized by Obama, in which the United States was to take 1,250 refugees currently being held by Australian authorities in offshore detention centers. Many of these refugees were from Iran and Somalia, countries included in the third iteration of the travel ban. By June 2021, Washington had resettled resettled 968 refugees as part of the deal.

The U.S. State Department, in consultation with a constellation of other agencies and organizations, manages the process through its refugee admission program, USRAP. The first step for a potential refugee abroad is most often to register with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR officials collect documentation and perform an initial screening and then refer qualifying individuals to State Department Resettlement Support Centers (RSCs), of which there are nine around the world. Sometimes this referral is done by a U.S. embassy or a nongovernmental organization.

Then, RSC officials interview the applicants, verify their personal data, and submit their information for background checks by a suite of U.S. national security agencies. These security checks [PDF] include multiple forms of biometric screening, such as cross-checks of global fingerprint databases and medical tests.

If none of these inquiries produce problematic results, including criminal histories, past immigration violations, connections to terrorist groups, or communicable diseases, the applicant can be cleared for entry to the United States. The entire admissions process generally takes between eighteen months and two years to complete.

The three primary federal government agencies involved in the refugee resettlement process are the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The State Departments Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) is the first U.S. government point of contact; it coordinates the process with all other agencies until a refugee is resettled.

Through its Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) branch, DHS is the principal agency responsible for vetting refugee applicants; USCIS makes the final determination on whether to approve resettlement applications. Its security review uses the resources and databases of several other national security agencies, including the National Counterterrorism Center, FBI, Department of Defense, and multiple U.S. intelligence agencies.

Once settled in the United States, refugees are generally in the hands of charity and other volunteer agencies that specialize in resettlement, such as the International Rescue Committee. The State Departments Reception and Placement Program provides funding to go toward refugees rent, furnishings, food, and clothing. After three months, this responsibility shifts to HHS, which provides longer-term cash and medical assistance, as well as other social services, including language classes and employment training. After the Trump administrations cuts to the refugee admission ceiling, all nine nongovernmental agencies that assist with resettlement downsized by closing offices or laying off staff.

Several intergovernmental organizations play a crucial role at various points. The United Nations is primarily responsible for referring qualified applicants to U.S. authorities, while the International Organization for Migration coordinates refugees travel to the United States.

Today, refugees are resettled in forty-nine U.S. states, though there are several states that generally resettle higher numbers than others. According to the Migration Policy Institute, California, Washington, and Texas took in the highest number of refugees in fiscal year 2020, making up 27 percent of all refugee admissions that year. Between fiscal years 2010 and 2020, one-third of all 601,000 resettled refugees went to just five states.

The logistics of refugee resettlement are largely handled by nine domestic resettlement agencies, many of them faith-based organizations such as the Church World Service and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Representatives of these organizations meet and review the biographical data of the refugees selected by the State Departments Refugee Support Centers abroad to determine where they should be resettled. As part of this process, federal law requires that resettlement agencies consult with local authorities [PDF], including law enforcement, emergency services, and public schools.

While this consultation is required, the 1980 Refugee Act gives the federal government final authority over whether to admit refugees and where they should be resettled. In the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, which were carried out by EU citizens who may have returned to Europe from the Middle East via refugee flows, more than thirty U.S. governors protested the resettlement of any Syrian refugees in their states. Legal experts say that while states cannot directly block federal government decisions on where to place refugees, they can complicate the process by directing state agencies to refuse to cooperate with resettlement agencies, as the governors of Texas and Michigan did in 2015.

Out of the more than three million refugees accepted by the United States over the past four decades, a handful have been implicated in terrorist plots. According to a 2016 study by the libertarian-leaning CATO Institute, of the 154 foreign-born terrorists who committed attacks in the United States since 1975, twenty were refugees. Of these attacks, only three proved deadly, and all three took place before 1980, when the Refugee Act created the current screening procedures.

Many of those responsible for recent attacks have been U.S. citizens, including the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooter, one of the perpetrators of the 2015 San Bernardino attacks, and the 2009 Fort Hood shooter. The 9/11 hijackers were in the country on tourist or business visas. Others were the children of asylees, including the 2016 Manhattan bomber, whose father had been an Afghan refugee, and the Tsarnaev brothers, who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing and whose parents fled war-torn Chechnya.

Trump administration officials often voiced concerns over the vetting process for incoming refugees. But Biden and other critics condemned Trumps rhetoric as scaremongering, and Biden campaigned on restoring U.S. leadership on global refugee resettlement. In February 2021, as part of his administrations plan to rebuild and enhance the countrys refugee program, he pledged to improve USRAP vetting to make it more efficient, meaningful, and fair.

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America's border security is about to go from terrible to the worst it has ever been.

The number of illegal aliens who crossed into America in 2021 was an all-time record at over 2 million. President Joe Biden's reckless immigration policies in his first year have led to the most lawless southern border in decades. And while Border Patrol's daily illegal alien apprehensions are already very high, the Biden regime is about to blow the hinges off the doors for a wide-open border with catastrophic consequences for American sovereignty and rule of law.

TEXAS GOV. TO DROP OFF MIGRANTS IN DC AFTER CHAOS FROM BIDEN'S POLICIES

Border Patrol agents work a checkpoint at an entry near the Del Rio International Bridge. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

With the White House's recently announced decision to end Title 42 Authority -- a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulation that allowed a portion of illegal migrants to be expelled from U.S. soil during the COVID pandemic -- the ongoing flood of illegal migrants is about to turn into a tsunami. This will also cause a surge in the criminal trafficking of opioids across the southern border, at a time when the U.S. is already suffering over 100,000 overdose deaths a year.

In the first six months of fiscal year 2022, there have already been one million migrant "encounters" (the preferred DHS euphemism for apprehended illegals) at the southern border. The current rate of Border Patrol apprehensions -- around 8,000 a day -- is already well-beyond their maximum capacity of 5,000.

In just more than a month's time, DHS officials are estimating there could be up to 18,000 illegal migrants apprehended at the southern border every day. Based on migrant flows already gathered or underway, there could be close to a million illegal migrant border crossings within six weeks of Title 42 ending.

If the surge of illegal migration is even close to this level, it will completely overwhelm the system. Border Patrol will be stretched beyond the breaking point. Every aspect of immigration enforcement at America's border with Mexico will be in a frenzied triage mode.

And it appears that is exactly the Biden plan: let migrants flood the system. Biden's administration simply does not want to stop the flow of illegal migrants -- in fact, the Left wing of the Democrat Party is in staunchly in favor of illegal migrants entering the country at will. Every immigration policy decision they make points in this direction.

Biden came into office calling for a 100-day moratorium on all deportations. Over the past year, interior enforcement of immigration laws has been almost entirely turned off, part of the systematic abuse of executive branch "prosecutorial discretion." President Biden chose to end the "Remain in Mexico" policy of his predecessor, President Trump, which had proven effective in re-establishing control of the border from illegal migrants' rampant abuse of American asylum laws.

The Democrat base simply wants the status quo to continue, in the hopes that soon a massive amnesty will create millions of new Democrat voters. But the American people are still -- by strong majority -- opposed to illegal immigration, which means the Biden administration will be focused on optics control at the southern border. They won't stop the illegal migrant flow, they will try to hide it, with plenty of help from their allies in the media.

The Biden White House isn't worried the constant mockery that they make of our immigration laws. They choose that. What concerns them is the possibility of another 15,000-person convoy -- perhaps many of them at once -- camping out at our southern border and demanding entry into the U.S.

While DHS monthly apprehension numbers look bad, massive crowds of illegals on tv -- some literally wearing "Biden" t-shirts as they attempt an end-run on our immigration laws -- leaves a truly lasting impression on voters.

YUMA, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 07: Immigrant men from many countries are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border on December 07, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. Most had come with their families through a nearby gap in the border wall in previous days to seek political asylum in the United States. Women and children were transported to processing facilities first. Border Patrol detention facilities in Yuma were overwhelmed with thousands of new arrivals, with many families trying to reach U.S. soil before the court-ordered re-implementation of the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy. The policy requires asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. immigration court process. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (John Moore/Getty Images)

Democrats are heading into what will likely be a disastrous midterm election, and illegal immigration is consistently a top-level concern in national polling. So the Biden-Democrat plan is going to be making the entry of illegals into the U.S. as seamless (and invisible) as possible.

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Once Title 42 is gone and the expected avalanche of illegal migrants begins next month, they will deploy additional DHS resources and assorted bureaucrats not to protect American sovereignty at the border, but to aid in its systematic violation.

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An overwhelmed Border Patrol will be forced to use "alternative to detention" processes to bring in -- and then set free -- anyone who enters illegally and does not pose an immediate security risk. Most illegals will be told, on a version of the honor system, to show up once on U.S. soil and enter themselves the immigration system. It's a de facto open border, and an absurd proposition.

Biden and the Democrats may not believe in our own national borders, but most Americans still do. The lawlessness is only going to get worse unless the Democrats are made to fear an electoral annihilation this November. That reckoning must emerge, or our southern border will disappear.

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Biden is creating the worst illegal immigrant crisis ever - Fox News

Close to 10,000 undocumented Ukrainians have been processed by authorities at US-Mexico border ports of entry, according to Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.

According to the report, between the start of February and April 6, US Customs and Border Protection said that 9,926 Ukrainians with no immigration documentation have migrated to the US border. It is unclear how many have been granted asylum so far.

DHS did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

CBS also reported that CBP registered 41,074 "legal entries" for Ukrainians within that time span. That category can include visas designated for tourism, permanent residency, or shorter travel.

A massive refugee crisis has unfolded across Ukraine's borders since Russia invaded the country on February 24, with at least 4.6 million Ukrainians fleeing to the country, per the United Nations. A month after the war started, US President Joe Biden said that the US would take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, but has not announced specific visa and resettlement programs.

Title 42 restrictions at the US border have enabled US border officials to turn away migrants seeking asylum due to the ongoing pandemic. The order hasfast-tracked more than 1.7 million migrant expulsions since March 2020 without opportunities to claim asylum while waiting in the US, or at all for many populations. Last week, US border officials said that 7,100 migrants are being stopped at the border daily.

The controversial measure was introduced in March 2020 under the Trump administration and has been continued by the Biden administration, effectively gutting the asylum process at the US border, creating backlogs, and leaving millions in limbo.

The law has been administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has been renewed by the current administration several times during the course of Biden's time in office. Under US law, migrants have the right to seek asylum, and the measure has been challenged in court numerous times.

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CBS: 10,000 Ukrainians processed at US border in the last 2 months - Business Insider

The sentencing trial for Nikolas Cruz began Monday, starting with jury selection. In October 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to killing 17 people and injuring 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

This trial will decide whether Cruz is imprisoned for life or receives the death penalty.

Because this case is such a high-profile case, jury selection will work differently, said Gerard Albert III, WLRNs Broward reporter.

It will be done in segments, with the couple dozen jurors selected this week moving on to another round of jury selection next month. They will be asked more specific questions by the lawyers regarding the death penalty.

This process will go on with more groups, with Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer aiming to go through two to three groups of about 40 to 60 potential jurors a day. A dozen or so from each group goes on to the next round.

In the courtroom, it isnt as dark as the judge thought it would be, he said.

The scheduling questions come out and people talk about their personal lives and open up It is lighter than youd imagine, and I think people might do that on purpose because they also feel a little stressed out, he said.

Day 2 of jury selection nearly saw a mistrial, as Scherer released 11 jurors who said they would not be able to follow the law. This means that they would not be able to sentence someone to the death penalty.

They were released without further questioning. However, the defense argued that with further questioning they mightve been able to change their stance. The next day the defense did not motion for a mistrial, which they couldve.

Scherer is going to try and call those 11 back for questioning in the following weeks.

There are many variables to this case that have heightened the medias attention. Not only is this case a high-profile one, it is also Scherers first capital case. The lead prosecutor, Michael Satz, is also a highly experienced attorney. He spent 44 years serving as Broward Countys State Attorney. He has tried many death penalty cases.

Until the end of May, we will see more jury selections, with Thursdays and Fridays being reserved for more depositions from the lawyers.

Increase in Cuban migrants at the southern border

More Cubans have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border between October and February than they did during the entire previous fiscal year 47,000 arrivals.

This is the fastest pace since the Mariel boatlift in 1980. But this time instead of thousands taking to the Florida Straits, many are hoping to come to the U.S. overland at the Mexico-U.S. border.

Cubans are making it to the border by going through Nicaragua. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega made it easier for Cubans to visit without a visa. This has made Nicaragua a more convenient stop for Cubans who want to get to the U.S.s southern border through South America.

There is a theory that the Nicaraguan and Cuban governments are actively working to create an immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border to make it harder on President Biden. WLRNs Americas Editor Tim Padgett said there is historical backing behind this theory.

The Cuban government, whether it was todays regime or the regime that Fidel Castro ran when he was alive and in power, it often used migrant crises like these to sort of get back at the U.S. for some slight or some crisis that was going on in the bi-lateral relationship, he said.

He cited the 1994 Balsero crisis, when Castro got angry at the U.S. and allowed Cuban citizens to leave the country without hindrance. He said that whether this theory is true or not, you cant discount it.

Padgett said this situation is also more of a regional reflex, not an intentional effort. Every country going through hard economic times in Latin America has used this mass immigration as a social and political release valve, he said.

When it comes to the difference in handling immigrants at the land border and Cubans at sea, Padgett doesnt think anyone has come up with a complete answer to this. He believes it has to do with the Cuban Adjustment Act.

Thats the law from 1966 that allows Cubans, if theyre able to get into the United States, it allows them a fast track toward the U.S. residency and eventually citizenship, he said.

When Cubans get interdicted at sea they get sent back. But if theyre able to make it to the U.S. southern border on land, Padgett said that its more likely they are able to take advantage of the asylum application system.

Taking advantage of this application system allows them to enter the U.S., and then the stipulations in the Cuban Adjustment Act begin to activate.

Padgett hopes that there isnt a difference in treatment between Cuban immigrants on sea and land. He believes that making that distinction would reflect poorly on the U.S.s treatment of any immigrants from anywhere.

Those in the Cuban diaspora want to see certain services and policies put back into effect. Padgett said the biggest concern among the diaspora is how to start getting those legal processes resumed and active again so Cubans can come to the U.S. legally.

North Miami Beach apartment building evacuated

Dozens of people living in Bayview 60, a North Miami Beach apartment building, were moved out of their homes this week. The evacuation was ordered after the building was deemed structurally unsafe by an engineer.

The foundation of the building was found to have shifted, compromising the integrity of the building.

Bayview 60 is a five-story, 50-year old building built in 1972 with 60 apartments.

It is the second building in North Miami Beach in the past year where residents have been ordered to leave because it's dangerous to stay. And these evacuations come after the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside in June.

North Miami Beach City Manager Arthur Storey said the owners of the building stepped up. They gave every renter their security deposits and April rent, and paid for three nights of housing for them.

Everybody in that building has been introduced to the Homeless Trust, as well as a couple other nonprofits that would offer solutions if they had a hard time finding lodging after those three days, Sorey said.

The city is not monitoring every individual renter, but they do have a hotline open to assist should they need it.

For now, the building is closed and will remain closed. The city is moving through one floor at a time, moving heavy furniture out. After talking to engineers about the building, Sorey does not see it being salvaged. He believes it will have to be torn down.

Nobody will live back in the building until someone comes and says this building is safe to live in, he said. I just dont anticipate that happening.

State Senator Jason Pizzo represents Surfside and North Miami Beach. He said building safety will not be added to the upcoming special legislative session on redistricting.

He believes that the legislature should focus more on building safety following these situations in Surfside, Crestview and Bayview 60. He pushes for residents and tenants of condos and other buildings to inquire about where they live, and he believes the state is critical in possible building safety reforms.

As a condo owner, and probably the only senator living in a condo according to him, he is frustrated to see such petty partisanship.

I said very very early shortly after the June 24th partial and then obviously the collapse of Champlain, I didnt think the governor had any appetite whatsoever to engage in condo reform, he said. As youve seen over the past few sessions, the governor exerts his influence on my colleagues to pass things that very infrequently have anything to do with saving lives.

If his colleagues cant get it done, then hell get it done, he said.

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Cruz's sentencing trial, increase in Cuban migrants, and an apartment complex evacuated - WLRN

Separately, The Telegraph can also disclose that protests by Extinction Rebellion at fuel depots threaten to pile even more misery on holidaymakers hoping to fly abroad this Easter.

Aviation industry leaders held crisis talks with government officials late last week after Birmingham Airport scrambled to avoid running out of aviation fuel.

Jets were asked to land at the airport with extra supplies so that they did not need to refill following the obstruction of deliveries at a nearby depot.

Airline and airport representatives are understood to have on Tuesday held fresh talks with Border Force officials amid concerns over the return of holidaymakers from their Easter break.

Border Force staff were reassigned from airports to deal with other issues such as the English Channel migrant crisis during the pandemic after most flights were grounded due to travel restrictions.

One senior industry figure said: "There were some concerns that a lot of Border Force staff had been taken out of airports and whether we would get them back again."

Long queues at airports showed no signs of abating on Tuesday as operators struggled to cope with large numbers of passengers, many of whom were going abroad for the first time in two years. More than 1,000 flights have been cancelled since the start of the Easter school holidays.

Industry leaders have pointed the finger at Whitehall. They say it is taking up to twice as long to complete security vetting procedures.

A spokesman for Airlines UK said: We are working closely and productively with all parts of Government to ensure we have the right levels of resource across the sector, including at the border. We knew things would be bumpy for the travel sector ramping up its operations from virtually nothing and are working hard to ensure things are back to normal as quickly as possible.

We are not apportioning blame to anyone, rather trying to work constructively across industry and with Ministers to resolve the problem.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: Those travelling in and out of the UK over the busy Easter period may face longer wait times than usual due a high number of passengers and as we ensure all passengers are compliant with the security and immigration measures put in place to keep us safe.

Border Forces number one priority is to maintain a secure border, and we will not compromise on this. We are mobilising additional staff to help minimise queuing times for passengers and will continue to deploy our staff flexibly to manage this demand.

Birmingham Airport insisted the fuel shortages had not led to cancellations. Andrew Holl, director of airfield operations for Birmingham Airport, said: The protests at Kingsbury depot caused minor delivery problems but our operations were largely unaffected because we sourced fuel from other depots and some incoming aircraft were asked to come with enough fuel on board for their return trips.

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Priti Patel was warned about Easter travel chaos a month ago - The Telegraph