President Biden said he will allow in up to 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, including up to 50,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean.

It’s the same cap he’s proclaimed the previous two years, but in practice the government has fallen far short. Immigrant rights advocates said they want to see him do more to reach the target this time around.

“The admission of up to 125,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest,” Mr. Biden said Friday in his notification to the State Department.

Refugees are those who apply for protection from outside the U.S. They are usually heavily vetted and often wait years for the opportunity.

Asylum seekers are those seeking protection who are already in the U.S., and apply from here.

In recent years, the country has been slammed with an unprecedented wave of illegal immigrants showing up and claiming asylum. Almost all of the claims are bogus, but while awaiting a final ruling, the migrants are here.

They’re supposed to be detained, but the Biden administration has not sought enough bed space to do that, so instead it releases them into communities, sparking the massive pressure for services that’s overwhelming local governments across the country.

The refugee cap applies to fiscal year 2024, which starts on Sunday and runs through Sept. 30, 2024. The cap is required by law and sets the maximum number of people who can be admitted as refugees each year.

There is no cap on grants of asylum.

The Trump administration slashed the refugee cap to record lows, saying it wanted to take a pause to deal with the massive asylum backlog already here after the Obama administration and a 2019 migrant surge.

Under the Biden administration, that asylum backlog has massively increased — but the administration says it can handle that and the larger refugee cap.

Immigrant rights advocates cheered that optimism.

“Each and every one of these refugee admissions should be acknowledged as a life saved, a dream of a brighter future renewed, and a nation’s values honored,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.