In light of the fact that Syrians have arrived in Georgia and that news is by far our most-read post of the last week, I went out scouting for more news on the Syrian refugee plans of the US State Department and found a story I missed in June (at the time of World Refugee Day) where a State Department honcho told a group in Florida that the big crush of Syrians would begin arriving late in 2015.
From WMNF 88.5:
Nearly 30,000 refugees come into Florida every year from countries all over the world.
With ongoing violence in Syria, Simon Henshaw from the State Department says very few Syrian refugees have arrived in the U.S., but that’s about to change.
“We have pledged to take a significant number and we will start interviewing Syrian refugees soon. But it takes about 18-24 months for someone to run through our system. So, we will not, as a country, see a significant amount of Syrian refugees come into the U.S. until the end of next year and then into 2016.”
Henshaw works in the bureau of population, refugees and migration. He’s visiting Tampa on World Refugee Day to see how Tampa is integrating refugees. Most are from places like Haiti and Cuba where refugees have been displaced for years.
The number of Syrians being bandied about (for resettlement to the US) is 12,000-15,000 per year.
I don’t know if this is great timing—if the feds start pouring Syrian Muslims into the US in a Presidential election year, the voting public will not be thrilled (just saying!).
Expect the time table to be sped up as surely the UN is losing patience with the US on the issue.