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GRAPHS: Refugee Admissions to the US

As I was looking through the Department of Homeland Security's report on refugees and asylees, I came across this amazing plot:



What accounts for this huge decline in refugees entering the US? I seriously doubt it is the decline in the number of people seeking refugee protection because the world has had quite a few humanitarian and political crisis. People I talk to tell me that countries like Canada and Australia have been more accommodating of refugees throughout the world with the help of UNHCR. Has the US been reluctant to fully participate in such programs? The explanation given on the report is as follows:
9/11 has certainly had an impact, but the numbers have been declining since the 1990s.

Asylum admission, on the other hand, had been rising in the 1990s and declining since 2001. Number of people granted asylum in the US is now half the number of those given refugee status. In the 1990s, the ratio of refugees to asylees was much larger.
I will certainly try to investigate(as in google for answers) the source of these patterns .

May be the lack of legal means of immigration to the US has contributed to illegal immigration?
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