Ex-Officials Urge White House to Accept More Syrian Refugees

More than 20 former senior officials, including some who served in prominent positions in the Obama administration, urged the White House on Thursday to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees, a tenfold increase over an American commitment made last week.

“We urge that you announce support for a refugees admissions goal of 100,000 Syrian refugees on an extraordinary basis, over and above the current worldwide refugee ceiling of 70,000,” they wrote in a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders.

The United States has accepted about 1,500 refugees from Syria since the start of the conflict there, and the White House announced last week that it would take in at least 10,000 more Syrian refugees over the next year. But the letter, which was signed by former officials from Democratic and Republican administrations, argued that much more should be done.

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“With some four million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum seekers in Europe, this would be a responsible exercise in burden sharing,” it says. “We urge you to take extraordinary measures, as were taken for refugees from Vietnam, northern Iraq and Kosovo.”