WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has decided that the United States should take in at least 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year, White House officials said Thursday.
It's unclear what that decision will mean for the Fargo area, a place where thousands of refugees from around the world have been resettled over the years.
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, which is contracted by the federal government to resettle refugees, does not yet know if any Syrian refugees will be coming to Fargo, said Jessica Thomasson, the nonprofit group's CEO.
"We'll just stay in tune as best we can to the conversations that are happening in Washington," she said. "It's typically closer to years before there are decisions made to start resettling people."
If Syrian refugees do come to Fargo, it would be a first for the city, which is home to refugees from Bosnia, Somalia, Bhutan and several other countries, but not Syria, Thomasson said.
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The U.S. commitment to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees is for the fiscal year that begins next month, officials said. During the current fiscal year, some 1,600 Syrian refugees have come to the United States.
That's less than 10 percent of the total number of names submitted by the United Nations, but Obama administration officials say the screening process for admitting refugees is difficult and time-consuming.
As millions of refugees flee the violence in Syria and surge into surrounding countries and Europe, refugee organizations have asked the United States to take in 100,000 Syrians - a dramatic increase over the 70,000 refugees from all countries admitted in the current fiscal year. White House officials said Thursday that such a large increase would be difficult without a significant increase in funds approved by Congress.
