Since 2001 we've seen a drop around the world in people seeking refugee status. More and more people are returning to the countries they were originally displaced from. This is hardly a new trend. Mr. Guterres was here the other day, the head of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, and he made the same point. He pointed out that fewer people are seeking asylum than before. But we're trying to do a better job of reaching out to refugees, which is why we raised the range for privately sponsored refugees. We're hoping to deal with the issue of the backlog and some of the disagreements we've had with some of the agreement holders to try to bring people in through the private sponsorship of refugees program. It's the best possible way to bring people into the country and get them settled. So we are making a good-faith effort to try to work with them to bring some more people in.
On November 7th, 2006. See this statement in context.