ADC urges the Obama Administration to accept refugees

ADC urges the Obama Administration to accept at least 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2016

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | September 29, 2015 - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) calls on the Obama Administration to take bold action to address the Syrian refugee crisis.

On Friday, September 25th, ADC and a diverse coalition of national organizations urged President Obama to lead by example and go well beyond refugee intake goals recently announced by the Administration for 2016 and 2017.

Click here to read the coalition letter.

The letter was sent under the umbrella of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of over 200 diverse national organizations who work together to promote civil and human rights. Other organizations signing the letter included the NAACP, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Council of La Raza, the Anti-Defamation League, Human Rights First, and the National Partnership for Women and Families.

ADC also sent its own letter specifically calling on the Obama Administration to accept and resettle at least 200,000 total refugees in the next fiscal year, including at least 100,000 Syrian refugees.

Click here to read ADC's letter to the Obama Administration.

In the letter, ADC stated that the U.S. has failed to lead in addressing the largest refugee crisis of our time, admitting only 1,600 of the 4 million registered Syrian refugees into the United States since 2011. Syria’s neighbors have demonstrated their willingness to bear more than their share of the burden of caring for Syrian refugees – Lebanon has taken in one million refugees, Turkey has taken in 2 million, and Jordan has taken in half a million. Germany, providing important leadership to the European Union, has pledged to take in 800,000 refugees. As the world’s greatest nation, the U.S. has the capacity, and the moral responsibility, to do more to help these desperate people.

ADC continues to work with our coalition partners and advocate for the U.S. to accept more Syrian refugees. As the country’s largest Arab-American civil rights organization, ADC is strongly concerned for the well-being of members of the Arab diaspora in the U.S., including Syrian refugees. In 2012, ADC filed a formal petition with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) be granted to Syrian nationals in the U.S. Since approval of the petition, ADC has assisted many Syrian nationals in filing TPS and asylum applications as part of our pro bono legal practice.

ENDS

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