Andrea Koppel, Mercy Corps vice president of global engagement and policy, joined O’Brien and others in saying that it is possible to find a peaceful resolution in Syria.
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Bennett, whose multifaith organization is a project of the Tannenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, said the process could be speeded up if the USA hired more screeners and if the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which refers refugees for screening, were better financed. McDonough is focused on the fight against ISIS. “There must be actions that relieve that pressure”, said O’Brien. And Sweden has taken in 80,000, O’Brien said. It also would show that the United States is not indifferent to human suffering and remains, as always, a beacon of hope to the world. She and Franken have urged the White House to accept 65,000 new Syrians seeking asylum into the country in the next year.
With millions of Syrians forced into camps across the Middle East, tens of thousands crossing Europe on foot and hundreds washing up dead on beaches, America has promised to take in only 10,000 as refugees next year.
“It’s not that we wouldn’t be able to resettle a Syrian refugee, but there may be other sites around the country that have less of their pipeline taken up”.
Since 2011, when the Syrian civil war began, 1,658 refugees have been relocated in the United States, according to the State Department. The Tsarnaev brothers were both minors – only about 8 and 15 years old when they came to the U.S.
Other politicians have expressed fears that some refugees could be members of armed groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). “Obama just announced that they’re going to resettle 10,000 refugees”. Meanwhile, several agencies say they are preparing to welcome Congolese refugees fleeing war in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Obama administration increased its target acceptance last week from 2,000 to 10,000 refugees.
In terms of finances, the Indochina migration program cost about $1 billion per year in 1975, according to Americans at the Gate, a book by University of Albany professor Carl Bon Tempo. If Congress passes a continuing resolution, the funding would remain flat.
Democratic Rep. Tim Walz didn’t want to commit to a number, but he said the tragedy “tears at your heart”. “The [United Nations] charter of refugees states that people should have the ability to move across borders freely”. The only factor for taking in a lot more of the suffering is the matter of security.
The added voice of Pope Francis – who will be in the US next week and has called for a greater response to the refugee crisis – will only help, she said. “We don’t have the systems in place on the ground in Syria to properly vet these individuals”.
“We need to get past this fundamental disagreement about what the cause of terrorism is and how to combat it. And those divisions do not appear to have abated, not withstanding the fact that we have more meetings and more heartbreak”, Power said.
Not all Republicans are sounding the terrorism alarm.
The peace activist blasted US Republican Senator John McCain for criticizing the Obama administration’s foreign policy that allowed Russian Federation to bolster its military presence in Syria. “We should take our fair share”, Graham said.
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MacCain referred to the “colossal failure of the American leadership” in the region, further blaming the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the influx of asylum seekers.
