US to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees

WASHINGTON

The U.S. will accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year, the White House said Thursday.

The number reflects a "significant scaling up" of the U.S.’s commitment to accept the refugees, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

He added that the refugees who want to resettle to the U.S. went through "the most robust security process of anybody who's contemplating travel to the United States," and that the process can take up to a year-and-a-half.

"The reason for that process is that the safety and security of the U.S. homeland comes first," he said.

Despite Thursday’s announcement, it remains unclear exactly what will be the status of the resettled refugees.

At the State Department, a spokesman said he wasn’t “aware of any permanent statuses” that would be given to incoming refugees.

“It’s not intended as an immigration program. It’s a resettlement program for refugees,” said John Kirby. “The goal here is, eventually, so they can go home.”

The U.S. has accepted approximately 1,500 Syrian refugees since 2011, when the civil war in Syrian began, and has been criticized for the relatively paltry number of Syrian asylum seekers it has accepted.

In defense of it’s Syrian policy, the U.S. has said it is the largest aid donor since the start of the crisis, spending more than $4 billion on relief efforts, including $25 million to assist resettlement in Europe.

The new U.S. fiscal year begins Oct. 1.