TeleSur | – –
“We are seeing the impact of the Trump administration’s words and policy and actions that slams the door on refugees,” says Oxfam America.
The United States has accepted only 11 Syrian refugees so far this year, human rights organizations announced Saturday, just hours after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes against strategic targets near Damascus in response to alleged chemical attacks by Syria’s government.
According to State Department figures, the United States took 15,479 Syrian refugees in 2016 at the end of Obama’s administration.
In 2017, after Trump was sworn in, that number dropped to 3,024. Now, after Trump’s infamous ‘Muslim travel bans’ and an increasing polarization of U.S. immigration policies, that figure is even lower.
“We are seeing the impact of the Trump administration’s words and policy and actions that slams the door on refugees, and Syrian refugees in particular,” said Noah Gottschalk, policy adviser at Oxfam America.
“What about the humanity of the people who are fleeing those attacks? These are the very people who need our support.”
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced that Temporary Protected Status would be extended for about 7,000 Syrians, under the condition they have continuously lived in the United States since before August 2016.
“It is clear that the conditions upon which Syria’s designation was based continue to exist, therefore an extension is warranted under the statute,” Nielsen said.
Via TeleSur
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Bonus video added by Informed Comment:
AP: “Amber Heard says meeting Syria refugees left a mark on her soul”
Of course Trump doesn’t care about Syrians. he doesn’t care about Americans either. Just look at the lack of response to the Peurto Rican hurricane. He dismantles health care as fast as he can without thought to children or the growing drug crisis. Trump cares only for himself and second those who can further his business interests and flatter him. None of us should expect him to care about other humans. He is only bombing Syria because he thinks it makes him look better to his base, not because he cares about people being gassed. We have only to look at his dismantling of the American EPA.
In previous interventions the US would take in “pro-American” “freedom fighters” when the intervention failed, but it seems they are no longer offering that incentive. Are there other incentives instead? Cash?