Washington, DC | www.adc.org | November 4, 2015 – The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) continues to urge the United States to do more to aid Syrian refugees. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes in Syria since 2011, yet the U.S. has only accepted 1,600 of those refugees so far, and plans to only accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year.
The U.S. must do much more to help these refugees. Right now there is a bipartisan Congressional effort to provide more aid to both Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have proposed emergency funding to help resettle tens of thousands more refugees in the U.S.
Congress should pass the Middle East Refugee Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act (S. 2145).
The bill would provide $1 billion in emergency funding to the State Department’s Migration and Refugee Assistance account. This would allow the U.S. to better respond to the refugee crisis. The bill could potentially support the resettlement of 100,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the next two years.
Take Action: Call the Capitol Switchboard now and ask to speak to your Senator at
877-429-0678 and say:
“As your constituent and a proud American, I urge you to do more to help the millions of refugees who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq. I urge you to co-sponsor Senate Bill 2145, the Middle East Refugee Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act.”
If we want to help more Syrian families, we need to make sure Congress knows the public cares about this, and we need to do it now. It may be the last aid effort for Syrian refugees for the coming year.
Background info:
In September, ADC urged the Obama Administration to accept at least 100,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016. Currently, the United States only plans to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees during the same time period. By contrast, Germany has said it will accept 800,000 refugees in 2016 and is willing to accept 500,000 more each year after that for the next few years.