Now the US has already admitted more than six times the number of refugees from the civil war-torn Mideast country it took in the previous fiscal year. Since the civil war began in 2011, almost 5 million Syrians have fled the country with over 660,000 settling in Jordan alone.
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Rice did not announce the name of the refugee or where in the USA that person will be resettled.
“We’d like to see these numbers increase really significantly. It’s important to recognize 10,000 is an incredibly modest goal given the crisis”, Gottschalk said.
The resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who were subjected to violence or torture or are sick. President Obama’s goal of accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of September is reckless.
USA officials on Monday reached its goal of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by October 1.
The administration pressed forward with Syrian refugee resettlement in spite of the opposition.
National Security Adviser Susan Rice says Obama understood the important message that expanding Syrian refugee admissions would send, not just to the Syrian people but to the broader worldwide community.
For some, 10,000 is too many.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and many republican lawmakers have opposed the President’s efforts over fears terrorists might be posing as Syrian refugees.
The United States accepted fewer than 1,700 Syrian refugees in fiscal year. “We know that there is always going to be people who are not terribly happy with having a refugee population, but I would say the percentage of them is very, very small”. Congress sought in January to pass a bill that would prevent any Syrians from coming into the country. “Is it any wonder that the citizens we represent are concerned?” And critics of the administration sounded an alarm in January, when two Iraqi refugees who came to the U.S.in 2012 and 2009 were arrested for offering support to ISIS. Today, by committing additional resources to our refugee admissions process and maintaining our rigorous screening process and commitment to the security of the American people, we have reached that goal.
“Thousands of families from Syria have found safety on our shores, and that is a wonderful thing”, said Tarah Demant, senior director with Amnesty International USA. “Syria is now the third most common country of origin for refugees”.
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In December, Trump proposed a plan to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the US, and most recently revised that plan to a temporary ban on “certain people” coming from countries with “tremendous terrorism”.
