I M P L E M E N TAT I O N O F T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E L I G I O U S F R E E D O M AC T newer accountability tools to deny U.S. visas to or block the U.S.-based During 2020, as part of the Trump administration’s continued assets of foreigners for corruption or human rights abuses. prioritization of religious freedom, USAID once again emphasized As of December 2020, the U.S. government had sanctioned 243 humanitarian aid for religious groups targeted for persecution or foreign individuals and entities under the 2016 Global Magnitsky genocide and programs to promote religious freedom, tolerance, Human Rights Accountability Act and the related 2017 E.O. 13818. and pluralism. In 2020, USAID spent $38 million in development Of these sanctions, 30 related directly to religious freedom, includefforts for ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq. USAID ing 14 out of the 35 (40 percent) total sanctions that were issued also supported the U.S. Institute of Peace’s (USIP) Closing the Gap during the reporting period. In July, the U.S. Department of the initiative, which analyzed the link between religious freedom, peace, Treasury imposed Global Magnitsky sanctions against eight Chinese and development. government entities and senior Chinese officials for their direct participation in the surveillance, mass detention, and forced labor Refugee Resettlement of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. In December, the Under the USRAP, the president sets a ceiling for how many refugees Treasury Department imposed Global Magnitsky sanctions against the United States will accept from abroad each year; under IRFA, reliChechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and five associated individuals, citgious persecution should be considered in this determination. Over ing Kadyrov’s many human rights violations against the lesbian, gay, the course of the Trump administration, the refugee ceilings for FY bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community and others in 2018, FY 2019, and FY 2020 were set at successively declining levels Chechnya. Although not explicit in the release announcing the desof 45,000, 30,000, and 18,000, respectively, with the administration ignation, many of the human rights abuses overseen or condoned by focusing instead on humanitarian assistance for those displaced abroad Kadyrov are based on his coercive imposition of his religious beliefs and programs to help enable their return home. USCIRF consistently on all of Chechen society. called for a return of the annual resettlement ceiling to the previously The State Department also used other visa restriction authorities typical level of 95,000. against human rights abusers, including violators of religious freedom. In October, then President Trump set the annual ceiling for FY Several public designations of foreign officials and their immediate 2021, the current fiscal year, at 15,000, the lowest in the program’s family members under Section 7031(c) of the fiscal year (FY) 2020 history. The administration dedicated 5,000 of those slots to refugees Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Act fleeing religious persecution, including refugees eligible for U.S. (P.L. 116-94) that were announced in FY 2020 involved religious freeresettlement under the Lautenberg Amendment—a special program dom violations. These designations were of: Kadyrov and his family for certain persecuted religious minority groups. At the end of 2020, for the abuses explained above; Huang Yuanxiong and his spouse for nearly 80 Iranians remained in Vienna, Austria, awaiting final approval abuses against Falun Gong practitioners; and three Chinese officials to travel to the United States for resettlement. and their immediate families for abuses against Muslims in Xinjiang, In February 2021, President Biden announced his intent to raise issued alongside the Treasury’s the refugee ceiling to 125,000 for imposition of Global Magnitsky FY 2022, which begins on October sanctions in July. 1, 2021, and issued an executive Additional targeted sancorder to take steps to position the USCIRF held a hearing on tions were imposed on Chinese administration to be able to do “Refugees Fleeing Religious Persecution” individuals and entities, includso. The Biden administration also in February 2021 that explored opportunities ing visa restrictions on certain notified Congress that it intended to improve U.S. refugee resettlement, employees of Chinese technology to raise the refugee ceiling for FY companies that provide material 2021 to 62,500 and develop new asylum, and humanitarian aid policies. support to regimes engaging in priority access categories for sevhuman rights abuses globally. eral especially vulnerable groups, Under the Iran-specific authority including Turkic Muslim refugees of E.O. 13876, Iranian officials and entities were sanctioned for serious who are nationals or last habitual residents of China, Rohingya Muslim human rights abuses, including for involvement in the persecution of refugees who are nationals or last habitual residents of Burma, and Jews and Baha’is. Iraqi and Syrian nationals who are members of a religious or ethnic minority. USCIRF held a hearing on “Refugees Fleeing Religious Programs Persecution” in February 2021 that explored opportunities to improve IRFA envisaged the funding of religious freedom programs, authorizU.S. refugee resettlement, asylum, and humanitarian aid policies. ing U.S. foreign assistance to promote and develop “legal protections and cultural respect for religious freedom.” For FY 2020, the State Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal Department was required to make funds available for international As authorized by IRFA, USCIRF has examined the U.S. government’s religious freedom programs. During 2020, the State Department’s treatment of asylum seekers in Expedited Removal, the process that Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) issued several allows DHS officers to deport quickly—without immigration court requests for proposals to advance religious freedom and/or provide hearings—noncitizens who arrive at U.S. ports of entry or cross protection to religious minorities groups, including to support projthe border without proper documents, unless they can establish ects in Brazil, Burma, China, Cuba, Iraq, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Syria, a credible fear of persecution or torture. USCIRF’s reports on the along with thematic and regionally focused programs on issues such subject, released in 2005, 2007, 2013, and 2016, documented major as the preservation of cultural heritage in Africa and the creation of problems that successive administrations have not addressed. religious freedom roundtables. Specifically, USCIRF found that DHS officials often fail to follow 10 U S C I R F | A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 2 1