Frankly folks, I’m suspicious.  If the Obama Administration had any interest in saving the Yazidis, what took them so long? And, why this new category of refugee just as Obama exits the White House.

The article reads like we haven’t been hauling Iraqis to America by the tens of thousands during the Obama Administration (see numbers below).

Voice of America:
WASHINGTON —

The U.S. government is working to permanently resettle hundreds of Iraqis who were victims of Islamic State (IS) violence.

Larry Bartlett, director of the Office of Refugee Admissions at the State Department told VOA that the U.S. is coordinating with the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to bring in hundreds of Iraqis to several to be determined locations in the U.S. Most of them are Yazidis and Christians whose communities were uprooted by IS. Many of them suffered brutality and torture at the hands of IS.

[….]

The resettlement efforts mark the first widespread attempt by the U.S. to admit Iraqis who survived under IS. [So who was persecuting the 122,000 plus we admitted in the last 8 years?—ed]

[….]

“We confirmed that Yazidis were the most traumatized [and] were the most victimized,” Bartlett said. “But there are other groups that were also affected by [IS] such as Christians and other religious minorities up there in the north.”

[….]

“We would expect that within a course of a year we would do hundreds of people,” Bartlett said. “One of the things we want to focus on is resettling families as a whole. There have been other programs in the past where just some of the victims were resettled for treatment. We are looking at this differently. We are looking at this as a family unity program of linking families together as much as possible.” [And, we haven’t been bringing families?—ed]

There is more, continue reading here.
BTW, interesting that Bartlett is making this announcement.  Is Anne Richard (Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration) busy packing up her office?

So let’s look at the numbers for Iraqi refugees admitted to the US since Obama took office!

And, remember readers that refugees by definition are supposed to be escaping persecution for one of several reasons (including race, religion, political views).
From the very beginning I have asked: so if Sunni Muslims persecute Shiite Muslims in Iraq and vice versa, does it make any sense to bring in both warring factions, and place them in your towns as we have been doing for over 8 years (Bush reluctantly opened the Iraqi flood gates at the end of his Administration).
From Fiscal Year 2009 until December 1, 2016 (8 fiscal years and a few months) we admitted to the US 122,532 Iraqi refugees (in some of those years Iraqis were the top ethnic group we resettled).
The numbers break down like this:

Sunni Muslims: 44,367

Shiite Muslims: 32,766

Moslems (not specified): 1,887

Catholics: 13,306

Christians (not specified): 21,173

Yazidis: 1,215

There were many other groups, including some other Christian denominations that were smaller in number.
So, I will ask again, who was persecuting the Muslims? Are they persecuting each other and thus they are eligible for refugee status? Sure looks like it!
For ambitious readers, this is the 715th post I’ve written about Iraqi refugees, see Iraqi category here.