RefugeesU.S. to accept 30,000 additional refugees over two years, 10,000 of them from Syria

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that the United States will accept an extra 30,000 refugees from around the world over the next two years. Kerry said the total number of refugees taken by the United States yearly would rise from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and to 100,000 in 2017.

“The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call,” Kerry. Kerry, who made the remarks in Berlin, did not indicate whether any of the additional refugees would be from Syria.

Kerry said that the United States would examine ways to increase the limit beyond 100,000, while carrying out background checks to make sure that the refugees have not been infiltrated by terrorists.

“We still need to do more and we understand that,” Kerry said in a joint news conference with the German foreign minister, Frank Walter-Steinmeier.

“This step is in keeping with America’s best tradition as a land of second chances and a beacon of hope,” he said, and added that it “will be accompanied by additional financial contributions” for the relief effort.

Since the war broke out in Syria more than four years ago, the United States has taken fewer than 1,500 Syrian refugees.

The New York Times reports that earlier this month, the White House said it would take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, and raising the cap on the total number of refugees would allow this move.

U.S. officials noted that the names of the Syrian refugees accepted by the United States over the next year would be drawn from a list of about 18,000 that the United Nations prepared before the current influx of migrants in Europe.

Obama can raise the cap on the number of refugees the United States takes in, but Congress must approve the additional funding. The State Department said it cost $1.1 billion to accept and resettle 70,000 refugees in 2015.