Obama administration officials announced Friday that the United States will most likely surpass the president’s goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees during Fiscal Year 2016.
“We can now say that we’ve welcomed 8,000 Syrian refugees so far this year and we are very confident we will welcome at least 10,000,” Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard said at a Friday’s press conference.
The Washington Times reports that the administration is on pace to admit 12,000 refugees by September, the end of the fiscal year.
Furthermore, Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Leon Rodriguez reassured the concerns raised by FBI Dir. James Comey that it is impossible to thoroughly screen all of the refugees.
Syrian refugees wait outside the embattled city of Aleppo (Getty Images)
Rodriguez reiterated that he is “confident” the protocol for screening refugees weeds out potential terrorists, noting that CIS officers even review “some” refugee applicants’ social media accounts in an effort to pick up anti-American sentiment.
He also pointed to the CIS’ seven percent denial rate for refugee applicants, which has kept “literally hundreds” of Syrians from reaching US soil.
President Obama has stated he wants the United States to admit at least 85,000 Syrian refugees.
Hillary Clinton has also proposed admitting an additional 65,000 refugees on top of the President’s plan.