The State Department said Thursday that its goal is to welcome 35,000 permanent refugees from the Middle East and South Asia in fiscal 2014.
30,000 Syrians are slated to be moved into permanent or long-term homes abroad by October if the U.N. refugee agency meets its goals, The Washington Post reported.
“If the United States wanted to allow Syrians to come in through an open process, they could do that,” Nadeen Aljijakli, a Syrian American immigration lawyer in Cleveland, told The Post.
Of the 30,000 Syrians the U.N. wants to place around the globe, the U.S. hopes to take 2,000.
The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have been killed during the course of Syria’s civil war since September 2011.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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