UPDATE: Sept. 10, 2015, 1:42 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama has told advisers he wants to let 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. in the coming budget year.
The U.S. has accepted only about 1,500 Syrians since civil war broke out more than four years ago.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says about $4 billion the administration has provided to relief agencies and others is the most effective way for the U.S. to help meet the humanitarian crisis in Europe. Tens of thousands of people from the Middle East and other war-torn countries are seeking safe haven across Europe.
But Earnest says Obama has decided that admitting more Syrian refugees would help boost the U.S. response.
The 2016 budget year begins Oct. 1.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Obama Administration:
Donald tRump:
Any questions?
Still rather paltry imo.
A very low number. I’m guessing this is the most we can take without having to ask Congress to do anything. Still we need to accept way more. Germany has 1/5th of our population and is taking in 500,000. 10,000 makes us look like more like Hungary than the shining light on the hill.
We could ask all of them to settle in Wyoming (current population a little over half a million). Maybe if we ask pretty please with sugar on top, and point out that some underpopulated state could get another Congressional Representative out of the deal, we’d have some buy-in.
The thing that bothers me the most is that these people are Syria’s future. The pictures of the people leaving are young men and women with very young children. Millions have already left and it leaves the old and sick to fend for themselves in Syria. I only hope they can find a place to settle that is safe, and gives them a chance to live with a positive future. I heard a funny quote the other day when a lady said that when Minnesota accepted many Asians and others that were escaping corrupt countries, it saved the state from having bad food and blondes. I hope that America can open their hearts to the Syrian people.