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Obama Admin to Hit Goal of Admitting 10,000 Syrian Refugees

Syria
A Jordanian soldier carries Syrian refugee children in the Roqban reception area, near the northeastern Jordanian border with Syria, and Iraq, near the town of Ruwaished / AP
August 29, 2016

The U.S. is on track to reach the Obama administration’s target of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-long resettlement program, the U.S. Ambassador to Jordan announced Sunday.

Alice Wells confirmed the number after meeting with several hundred refugees who will depart from Jordan within the next day and head to California and Virginia, the Associated Press reported.

Wells said that while the resettlement arrived well ahead of the administration’s Oct. 1 deadline, it did not compromise U.S. security.

"The immediate goal of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees did not come at the cost of our comprehensive, robust security measures. Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of traveler to the United States," she said, according to the AP.

Donald Trump has criticized President Obama’s resettlement program as a national security threat. He said he would deport all Syrian refugees granted haven under Obama if he wins the White House in November.

As of Sunday, the U.S. had resettled 9,902 Syrian refugees since last September. The U.S. is the largest donor to the Syrian crisis response, donating nearly $5.6 billion overall, according to Wells.

More than half of the arrivals are under 18 years old, according to an NPR report.

Obama announced last fall that his administration intended to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees during fiscal year 2016 as the migrant crisis overwhelmed Europe and the Middle East last summer.

The Syrian government’s onslaught against rebel forces opposing Bashar al Assad’s authoritarian rule has killed an estimated 400,000 people while displacing millions of refugees since March 2011.

Nearly 5 million Syrians are currently registered with the United Nations refugee agency. The majority of them live in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. About one million Syrians have requested asylum to Europe, according to official figures.