BERLIN – Scrambling to address a
growing Syrian refugee crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
announced Sunday that the United States would significantly increase the
number of worldwide refugees it takes in over the next two years,
though not by nearly the amount many activists and former officials have
urged.
The U.S. will accept 85,000 refugees from around the world next year,
up from 70,000, and that total would rise to 100,000 in 2017, Kerry
said at news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier after they discussed the mass migration of Syrians fleeing
their civil war.
Many, though not all, of the additional refugees would be Syrian,
American officials have said. Others would come from strife-torn areas
of Africa. The White House had previously announced it intended to take
in 10,000 additional Syrian refugees over the next year.
Asked why the U.S. couldn't take more, Kerry cited post-Sept. 11
screening requirements and a lack of money made available by Congress.
"We're doing what we know we can manage immediately," he said, adding that the U.S. cannot take shortcuts on security checks.
U.S. lawmakers immediately expressed concerns about the potential influx.
The Islamic State group (ISIS) and other terrorist organizations
"have made it abundantly clear that they will use the refugee crisis to
try to enter the United States. Now the Obama administration wants to
bring in an additional 10,000 Syrians without a concrete and foolproof
plan to ensure that terrorists won't be able to enter the country," said
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
"The administration has essentially given the American people a
'trust me.' That isn't good enough," according to a statement from the
lawmakers, who head the congressional judiciary committees.
Conditions in Syria have been growing increasingly dire as the civil
war grinds on. As many as 9 million people have been displaced,
including more than 4 million who have fled the country, according to
the United Nations.
A letter made public last week and signed by several former Obama
administration officials urged the U.S. government to accept 100,000
Syrian refugees, and to put in place special rules to speed the
resettlement process. Germany says it will accept as many as a million
Syrians this year.
"Current (American) efforts are not adequate," according to the
letter, signed by Michelle Flournoy, a former senior U.S. defense
official who once was Obama's choice for Pentagon chief, and Harold Koh,
the former State Department legal adviser. "Humanitarian aid has fallen
short in the face of unspeakable suffering."
Syrian refugees to the U.S. would be referred by the U.N. refugee
agency, screened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and
resettled around the country.
"This step is in keeping with America's best tradition as a land of
second chances and a beacon of hope," Kerry said. Earlier, he and
Steinmeier met with a group of refugees around a conference table on the
wooded, lakeside resort-style campus of the foreign ministry's
education center outside Berlin.
The Syrians, who Kerry asked reporters not to name for security
concerns, said the uptick in migration five years into the civil war was
being driven by a collapse of hope that the situation ever will
improve.
"I personally came here in search of a future," said a mother of
three daughters who made it to Germany with her five-year-old but left
two others behind in Syria with her parents. She hopes they all can
come, too.
Congressional approval is not required for the Obama administration
to expand resettlement slots, though Congress would have to appropriate
money to pay for the additional effort, Kerry pointed out. Intelligence
officials and Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns that ISIS
militants could seek to slip into Europe or the U.S. posing as refugees.
In 2011, two Kentucky residents who had been resettled as Iraqi
refugees were accused of being Al Qaeda members. They were convicted of
terrorism charges after their fingerprints were linked to roadside bombs
in Iraq. That led to new steps to screen refugees, a process that has
been criticized as slow and bureaucratic.
"Some of the 65,000 that came from Iraq actually were trying to buy
stinger missiles in my hometown in Kentucky," said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul
of Kentucky, a Republican presidential candidate, in a broadcast
interview. "So we do have to be weary of some of the threat that comes
from mass migration."
Even if the U.S. took in 30,000 Syrians over the next two years — an
unlikely outcome, given that only 1,500 have been admitted since the
start of the war — that number would pale in comparison to the hundreds
of thousands that Germany is expected to accept, or the 800,000
Vietnamese that the U.S. resettled in the years after the Vietnam war.
In Washington, Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said in a television interview that the U.S.
"has to do more and I would like to see us move from what is a good
start with 10,000 to 65,000 and begin immediately to put into place the
mechanisms for vetting the people we would take in, looking to really
emphasis some of those who are most vulnerable."
Logistical and resource hurdles remain. For example, there is no
suitable facility in Lebanon where Syrian refugees can be taken for
interviews, so no interviews are occurring, according to the State
Department.
Kerry said the refugee crisis must ultimately be solved by ending Syria's civil war and replacing President Bashar Assad.
On that score, Kerry made clear Saturday the U.S. was willing to
negotiate the terms of Assad's exit with Russia, which is backing his
government with a recent military buildup. The Russians brought in
fighter jets and surface to air missiles that could threaten American
plans, much to the dismay of American officials.
Critics have accused the Obama administration of passivity in the face of Russian aggression.
After holding out hope Saturday that Russia could help the U.S. fight
the Islamic State, Kerry took a somewhat tougher line on Sunday, saying
that he and the German foreign minister agreed that "support for the
(Syrian) regime by Russia, or by any other country, risks exacerbating
the conflict ... and only hinders future cooperation toward a successful
transition."
