Some Action on O’Malley’s Appeals for US to Accept More Syrian Refugees

After repeated calls from former Maryland governor and presidential candidate Martin O'Malley for the United States to take more Syrian refugees, the Obama administration is signaling that it may be ready to do just that.

“We are committed to increasing the number of refugees that we take. And we are looking hard at a number that we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a group of reporters after a meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, according to published reports. “That’s being vetted fully right now and I think at the appropriate time we’ll have a better sense of what exactly that number will be.”

The State Department announced last week it expected to welcome between 5,000 and 8,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016, up from 1,000 to 2,000 in FY15. This number did not satisfy O’Malley, who has been vocal about the United States taking greater leadership in humanitarian crises.

“For us to sit back and do nothing and say ‘oh we can only accept 8,000 people as part of this crisis,’ I think is morally indefensible,” O’Malley said Tuesday on CNN. “We need to remember that our enduring symbol is the statue of liberty. We need to be a leader among nations when it comes to alleviating this crisis. 65,000 is not too large a number for a country as strong and as big as the United States.”

In a statement released Friday, O’Malley noted that Germany has agreed to accept 800,000 Syrian refugees, adding “certainly we – the nation of immigrants and refugees – can do more.”


http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2015/09/11/omalley-syria-requests/72027780/