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Obama Directs Administration to Accept 10,000 Syrian Refugees Obama Increases Number of Syrian Refugees for U.S. Resettlement to 10,000
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama, under increasing pressure to demonstrate that the United States is joining European nations in the effort to resettle Syrian refugees, has told his administration to take in at least 10,000 displaced Syrians over the next year. WASHINGTON — President Obama, under increasing pressure to demonstrate that the United States is joining European nations in the effort to resettle Syrian refugees, has told his administration to take in at least 10,000 displaced Syrians over the next year.
At a briefing at the White House on Thursday, the press secretary, Josh Earnest, said the United States would “accept at least 10,000 refugees in the next fiscal year,” which begins Oct. 1. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said in a briefing Thursday that while the administration was continuing to examine responses to a refugee crisis that has overwhelmed Europe in recent days, the president has decided to raise the number of Syrian refugees admitted to at least 10,000 in the fiscal year beginning in October from fewer than 2,000 this year.
Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry, said at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that that the total number of refugees taken in by the United States could rise to more than 100,000, from the current figure of 70,000. State Department officials said that not all of the additional 30,000 would be Syrians, but many would be. The announcement brought a variety of reactions that underscored how the refugee crisis has become another polarized political question. Aid groups called the administration’s action a token one given the size of the American economy and population, while a number of Republicans warned that Mr. Obama was allowing in potential terrorists. “Our enemy now is Islamic terrorism, and these people are coming from a country filled with Islamic terrorists,” said Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York. “We don’t want another Boston Marathon bombing situation.”
But Mr. Earnest said members of Congress “misunderstood” Mr. Kerry when he said the number of refugees could rise to as high as 100,000 next year. Mr. Earnest emphasized that the administration had no intention of relaxing the significant and lengthy criminal and terrorist background vetting procedures demanded of refugee applicants, an expensive process that can take 18 to 24 months to complete. But Mr. Earnest emphasized that the president would not allow any lessening in the intense background and medical checks that can take as much as two years to complete. Those wishing to come to the United States must apply through the United Nations, which has a presence in many refugee camps, and Mr. Earnest discouraged migrants from taking risky journeys and paying traffickers.
“To scale up to a degree that some members of Congress have in mind would have some significant fiscal consequences,” Mr. Earnest said. “Refugees go through the most robust security process of anybody who’s contemplating travel to the United States,” Mr. Earnest said. “Refugees have to be screened by the National Counter Terrorism Center, by the F.B.I. Terrorist Screening Center. They go through databases that are maintained by D.H.S., the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. There is biographical and biometric information that is collected about these individuals.”
The United States offered expedited resettlement to refugees of the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Mr. Earnest said that Syrian refugees would not get similar treatment and that the president would “not sign off on a process that cuts corners” on security guarantees for the United States. The United States once offered refuge to tens of thousands at a time. In 1979, it provided sanctuary to 111,000 Vietnamese refugees and in 1980 almost doubled that number to 207,000. Around the same time, the United States took in more than 120,000 Cuban refugees during the Mariel boatlift, including more than 80,000 in one month alone.
Germany has talked about taking upward of 800,000, and even Venezuela has promised to take 20,000 refugees. By comparison the American effort would be relatively small. Mr. Earnest said the German government and people “are demonstrating tremendous generosity and hospitality.” Asked whether he would use those same adjectives to describe the United States response, Mr. Earnest said: “The challenge that is facing Germany right now is different than the challenge we’re facing.” But after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the number of refugees allowed into the United States slowed sharply, dropping to 27,131 in 2002. The numbers have risen steadily since then and last year amounted to 69,987 — just below a cap of 70,000. Most refugees need at least a year and sometimes two to navigate the system.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria more than four years ago the United States has taken in only 1,300 refugees. For refugees fleeing war or fearing for their lives, the United States can no longer provide anything approaching immediate sanctuary, said Sarah Margon, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “The system is just too bogged down in bureaucratic impediments,” she said.
White House officials have had frequent meetings on the crisis, and the issue is likely to become central in the presidential campaign. Germany has talked about taking more than 800,000 Syrian refugees, thousands of whom have already flooded train and bus stations throughout Europe. Even Venezuela has promised to take 20,000 refugees.
Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the United States to take in more refugees and provide more aid during a speech on Wednesday at the Brookings Institution; for Republican candidates the issue will become enmeshed in the debate over immigration. “Ten thousand is just an embarrassingly low number given the scale of this crisis and that the U.S. has long been a global leader in resettlement,” said Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First, a New York-based nonprofit.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has already referred 18,000 cases to the United States for resettlement. Many of them are the most vulnerable from Syria’s collapse: Torture survivors, people with special medical needs, and women who head households. More than half are children, officials say. Mr. Earnest praised the German government and people as “demonstrating tremendous generosity and hospitality to these fellow human beings who are in a desperate situation.” When asked whether he would use the same adjectives to describe the United States response, Mr. Earnest said that “the challenge that is facing Germany right now is different than the challenge that we’re facing.”
But the vetting process has created huge delays, and in fiscal year 2015, which ends next month, the State Department expects only 1,500 to 1,800 Syrians will have been resettled in the United States. In fiscal year 2014, only 105 Syrians arrived in the country. On Capitol Hill, the divisions about how to respond to the crisis were almost as stark as those around the Iran nuclear agreement, on which senators voted Thursday.
Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama and chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, said the United States needed to help refugees return to their homes as quickly as possible. “I do not favor every war zone turning into hundreds of thousands, even millions of refugees that flee the country to go to other countries that otherwise they wouldn’t meet the immigration standards,” he said.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said Mr. Obama needed to ask for more money from Congress to deal with the crisis. “And maybe it would be nice if he would admit that it’s his fault that it happened,” Mr. McCain, who has advocated a far more robust military response to the Syrian crisis. “Those people’s lives are on his hands.”
Senator Richard J. Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, who wrote a letter along with 14 other Democrats urging President Obama to take an additional 65,000 Syrian refugees, praised Mr. Obama’s pledge of taking 10,000 Syrian refugees next year as “a step in the right direction.”
“I think the number has to be higher, but as I mentioned, we have a process, we have to be careful that each one of them is vetted so there’s no threat,” Mr. Durbin said.
Senator Chris S. Murphy of Connecticut said there were risks in doing nothing, too. “Do we think we make this country more or less safe from terrorism by showing a cold-heartedness to this refugee crisis?” he asked. “I think the answer is no.”
Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry said at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill that the total number of refugees taken in by the United States could rise to more than 100,000, from the current figure of 70,000. State Department officials said that not all of the additional 30,000 would be Syrians, but many would be. But Mr. Earnest said that members of Congress “misunderstood” Mr. Kerry, and that the number of refugees would not rise to 100,000 next year but might in later years.
More than seven million Syrians have been displaced by war, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has already referred 18,000 cases to the United States for resettlement. Many of them are the most vulnerable from Syria’s collapse: Torture survivors, people with special medical needs and women who head households. More than half are children, officials say.