Will US step up to Syrian refugee crisis challenge?

Europe’s refugee crisis and the horrifying images seem to be imprinted into the American people’s consciousness in a way that you do not often see.

American citizens and politicians have begun to call for the US to do more. The White House response: We are looking into it.

More specifically, the state department says it wants to increase the number of refugees, but it isn’t saying how many.

I attended the White House briefing on Tuesday, and there seemed to be a lot of confusion about just how that would work.

Even Josh Earnest, the press secretary, said he was not sure if the president could accept more refugees without congress.

One of the network reporters suggested the refugee ceiling cannot be changed without changing the laws. Here is the issue with that: it is not true.

The White House staff and press corps should just look at the White House website.

If they did, they would find this memo to congress from President Barack Obama:

“In accordance with section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the “Act”) (8 U.S.C. 1157), and after appropriate consultations with the Congress, I hereby make the following determinations and authorise the following actions: The admission of up to 70,000 refugees to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 is justified by humanitarian concerns …”

The president sets the ceiling as it is called, in consultation with congress. For the fiscal year 2015 the limit was set at 70,000 refugees.  http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2015/09/step-syrian-refugee-crisis-challenge-150909161637525.html