The growing crisis in Syria has put an increasing pressure on all developed countries to take action and help. More, specifically, photos of drowning refugees has put a tremendous push on the Obama administration, which has caused him to order at least 10,000 refugees be admitted into the United States by the end of the 2016 year.
According to an article by AFP, a recent petition signed by over 62,000 Americans called for the Obama administration to take in at least 65,000 Syrians by 2016, which may seem like a lot, but is not even half of the totaling four million refugees.
Each year the United States accepts 70,000 refugees from different countries experiencing struggles all over the world, a process that takes deliberate attention in order to “weed out extremists.” The whole process can take from 18 to 24 months for an accepted refugee to arrive to the US, from the time they are first submitted for approval. The US government wants to be very careful about who they are bringing in to the country. Each family must undergo a security check and meet with the Department of Homeland Security and have their names go through a government database.
Although, the Obama administration is doing what they find is best fitting, some, find their efforts insufficient. Michael McCaul, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee in the House of Representatives, believes Obama has acted in the spur of the moment and is going against federal law enforcement warnings that say, the US is not well enough prepared to house refugees of a heavy conflict area.