Syrian Refugees Now Admitted into the US

Here in the Shenandoah Valley, Harrisonburg was recently designated a “Welcoming America” city, part of a national network of communities that are working together to make it easier for newly arrived immigrants and refugees to adjust to their new life.

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This week US ambassador to Jordan Alice Wells announced that the United States will be importing its ten thousandth Syrian refugee into the country in accordance with Obama’s year-old resettlement project, the Associated Press reports.

The White House had pledged to admit at least 10,000 displaced Syrians during the current fiscal year, which wraps up at the end of September.

Trump said that if he is elected, he would persuade Gulf states to bankroll safe zones for Syrian refugees so they would not have to be brought to the US.

There were 59 arrivals through April, and then there were 20 more in May, another 57 in June, and 73 more last month. Just 36 percent of American voters told pollsters earlier this month that they supported allowing any refugees from Syria into the country.

Administration officials dismissed concerns about terrorists hiding among the refugees.

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, more than 4.8 million fled their homeland, to neighbouring Middle Eastern countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and many more to the shores of Europe in search of safety and security.

The U.S. ambassador to Jordan, Alice Wells, shakes hands with Syrian refugees Sunday ahead of their departure to the United States. More than half of the country’s governors, including Maryland’s Larry Hogan, announced they wanted the federal government to stop resettling Syrian refugees in their states.

Some criticism focused on the miniscule proportion among the successful applicants who are Christians, Yazidis, or members of other minorities that have borne the brunt of atrocities carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) – atrocities which the administration has determined amount to genocide.

“Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travelers to the United States, and Syrian refugees are subject to even greater scrutiny”, Alice Wells, the USA ambassador to Jordan, said.

Administration officials have largely dismissed the criticism, arguing that an exceptionally tough screening process applies to applicants for refugee status from Syria.

“I’ve been getting call after call and emails and more emails”, says Kuhr. In the first four years of the conflict, the U.S. resettled only 1,900 refugees and faced a United Nations case referrals backlog.

Trump has repeatedly hammered the Obama administration over its call last summer to escalate the number of refugees allowed into the USA, warning that the policy will weaken anti-terror defenses.