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FIRST ON FOX: Secretary of State just sworn in Marco Rubio is advising his department to end refugee resettlement operations and begin increasing visa verification from certain regions in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
After officially becoming his next secretary, Rubio led the Department of State to halt refugee resettlement programs, a senior department source told Fox News Digital.
It also ordered the department to implement enhanced verification for visa applications from “dangerous regions”.
The secretary cited new executive orders signed by Trump after his inauguration on Monday.
Rubio ordered the department to begin taking certain actions in accordance with Trump’s executive orders. (Reuters)
Among dozens of executive orders, Trump signed one aimed at “Reshaping the United States’ refugee admissions program” and another at “(protecting) the United States from foreign terrorists and other threats to national security and public safety “.
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President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The former ruled the suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) due to its detrimental effect on the country’s interests. This latest order calls for increased investigation of all foreigners, “to the greatest extent possible,” especially those “from regions or nations with identified security risks.”
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Trump’s executive order on refugees further states that “the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security may jointly decide whether to admit aliens to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as it determines that the entry of such aliens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”
Rubio was the first member of Trump’s cabinet to be confirmed, the Senate voted unanimously Monday night.
Rubio ordered the State Department to suspend the refugee program. (Reuters)
He was sworn in Tuesday morning, becoming the 72nd secretary of state.
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Speaking at the department on Tuesday, Rubio said, “There will be changes, but the changes are not intended to be destructive. They are not intended to be punitive.
“The changes will be because we have to be a 21st century agency that can move – a cliché used by many – at the speed of relevance. But we have to move faster than ever, because the world is changing faster than ever we must and must have a vision that some say is called “look around the corner”.
A group of more than 100 migrants trying to enter the United States illegally rush against a border wall on March 21, 2024. (James Breeden for New York Post/Mega)
“But we really have to be thinking about where we’re going to be five, seven, 10, 15 years from now. Some of the problems facing humanity today are unprecedented. They have no historical precedent. Some of the challenges we face have no historical precedent. We can compare it to another era, to another era, but they are not the same, things are going faster than ever,” he explained.
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Immigration was a campaign priority for Trump during the 2024 election.
In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump promised: “I will declare a national emergency on our southern border. All illegal entry will be stopped immediately. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to places from where they have been. We will restore my policy of remaining in Mexico, end the practice of capture and release, and send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of the country.”
