Obama doesn’t have much time left—he has to get as many refugees resettled (seeded!) in your towns and cities as he possibly can before January 2017.
Here is Reuters yesterday on news that the US State Department is gearing up to open more processing centers in the Middle East so as to speed up the relocation of more Syrians to your towns.
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – The Obama administration is moving to increase and accelerate the number of Syrian refugees who might be admitted into the United States by opening new screening outposts in Iraq and Lebanon, administration officials told Reuters on Friday.
The move comes after President Barack Obama pledged in September to admit an additional 10,000 refugees in 2016 from Syria, torn by four years of civil war and disorder.
The U.S. State Department confirmed the plans to open a refugee settlement processing center in Erbil, Iraq, before the end of 2015, and to resume refugee processing in Lebanon in early 2016, said spokeswoman Danna Van Brandt.
The White House would not say how many additional refugees it may take in beyond the 10,000, but two senior administration officials said they are seeking ways to increase the number.
“We want to be in a place where we can push out really ambitious goals,” said one of the officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
The State Department runs nine screening centers worldwide that serve as meeting points for refugees and U.S. Department of Homeland Security employees who have to decide who is suitable for resettlement in the United States.
And get this, we will re-open the processing center in Lebanon (guess those security concerns have disappeared)!
Homeland Security workers stopped traveling to Lebanon to meet with refugees when the facility there closed over a year ago due to security concerns.
Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall as the US Department of Homeland Security (FBI) says Syrians can’t be properly screened yet Homeland Security is speeding up the process of getting those not properly screened in here faster to satisfy the White House and UN/US State Department and the contractors.