At a meeting in Berlin, Germany Secretary of State, John Kerry, said that the U.S. will not stop at the proposed additional 10,000 Syrians coming to the U.S. next year. He said the Obama administration plans on increasing the cap for worldwide refugees from 70,000 to 100,000 by 2017.
“This step that I am announcing today, I believe, is in keeping with the best tradition of America as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope,” Mr. Kerry said.
He also told Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs in Germany, that the United States would try to increase beyond the planned 100,000 refugees, while still carrying out background checks for potential terrorists. “We still need to do more, and we understand that,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference with Mr. Steinmeier.
This proposed influx comes after the FBI has said there is no way to securely vet refugees and have admitted they do not have the security process under control. The U.S. has only taken in around 1,500 Syrians since the conflict started over four years ago.
Germany has been flooded with the Syrian migrants since they announced their open border policy, which they have now rescinded due to the huge influx of migrants. Many European countries are closing their borders to the Syrians, unable to accommodate the large migrant population.
Both Kerry and Steinmeier said they would work to rally support to increase aid to the refugee camps in the countries bordering Syria next week at the United Nations General Assembly.
Nearly 500,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States since 2009. The U.S. has been taking about 70 percent of all the refugees resettled by the United Nations each year.
Read More at The New York Times.
