Sept. 16--Sen. Dick Durbin said Wednesday that the U.S. should accept 100,000 Syrian refugees -- a much larger number than the Obama administration's plan to take in at least 10,000 in the next year.
Durbin, a Democrat and the Senate's assistant minority leader, made the proposal from the Senate floor after visiting with four Syrian families in Chicago last week.
"We have a rich history of responding to these humanitarian crises. We need to do it again," said Durbin, who noted that the U.S. in years past accepted refugees from Cuba, Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as Hmong from Vietnam and Soviet Jews.
Durbin said he was moved by the recent image of the 3-year-old boy who drowned and washed ashore in Turkey after the boat he was traveling in capsized.
He said the Obama administration's aim regarding Syrian refugees was "too modest." That plan to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees is for the fiscal beginning Oct. 1.
"These are refugees, not migrants, these are people who are the victims of war who are fleeing for their families," Durbin said.
The lawmaker met Friday with Syrians in Chicago who had fled the country's ongoing civil war.
"The people I met ... are just desperate people, trying to find a roof over their head, trying to find some little work to do to keep what remains of their family together," Durbin said.
He said it was unfair to blame the Syrian crisis on President Barack Obama. He also said Syrian refugees coming to the United States should be carefully vetted so they do not pose a danger.
kskiba@tribpub.com
