Washington Post: U.S. Charities Urge Obama to Let in More Syrians, Ask Churches to Help
Sep 11, 2015
[[{"fid":"1170","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","attributes":{"style":"height: 300px; width: 400px; margin: 5px; float: right;","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]The Washington Post reports today on the efforts of RCUSA and HIAS Vice President for Policy and Advocacy Melanie Nezer to encourage the United States to respond more robustly to the refugee crisis currently playing out across Europe. They write:
Refugee resettlement agencies based in the Washington area said Friday that they are actively preparing to welcome an influx from the conflict in Syria, while also petitioning the Obama administration to resettle far more than the roughly 10,000 Syrians that the White House announced this week would be accepted.
“It is abundantly clear that the Syrian crisis is nowhere close to ending,” Melanie Nezer, who chairs a coalition of nine major resettlement organizations, wrote in an open letter to President Obama. The letter urged the administration to accept 200,000 refugees in the current fiscal year, including 100,000 Syrians.
In light of the unfolding refugee crisis, Nezer wrote, the U.S. should open its doors as widely as it did during the Vietnam war, in part to encourage similar action from European nations, and in part to help prevent further suffering and abuse of Syrian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.
Click here to read the full story on The Washington Post's website.
