The Obama administration admitted nearly 85,000 refugees last year, the most since 1999, but less than 10 were settled in President Obama’s backyard of Washington, D.C., or .01 percent, according to the State Department.
Overall, 84,995 refugees were accepted under Obama’s program of greatly expanding the program to include Syrians. About a quarter were settled in just three states, Texas, California and New York, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the State Department data.
Washington, D.C., however, did not lead by example.
“Some states and the District of Columbia took in few or no refugees in fiscal 2016. Arkansas, the District of Columbia and Wyoming resettled fewer than 10 refugees each, while two states – Delaware and Hawaii – took in none,” said Pew.
Delaware is the home state of Vice President Joe Biden and Hawaii is Obama’s Christmas vacation home.
Over 50 percent of the refugees were settled in just 10 states.
Obama increased the number of refugees into the United States by 15,000 last year. According to Pew:
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (16,370) was the top origin country among refugees resettled in 2016. Some 10% were resettled in Texas, 7% in Arizona and 6% in both New York and North Carolina.
However, Syrian refugees – the second-largest origin group with 12,587 resettled in fiscal 2016 – have garnered more attention from state leaders, with 31 governors opposing this group’s resettlement in their states. Even so, resettlement patterns of Syrian refugees across the states are similar to the national average. California had the largest number (1,450) of resettled Syrian refugees in fiscal 2016, followed by Michigan (1,374) and Texas (912).
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
