Under President Obama’s orders, the U.S. welcomed a total of 38,901 Muslim refugees in fiscal year 2016, nearly half of all the 85,000 refugees who entered the country in that period, according to an analysis of State Department Refugee Processing Center figures.
That is three times the goal Obama set for just Syrian refugees.
The Pew Research Center said the 38,901 was the largest number for Muslim refugees ever recorded.
What’s more, it outnumbered Christian refugees let in.
Said Pew, “Almost the same number of Christian (37,521) as Muslim refugees were admitted in fiscal 2016, which ended Sept. 30. A slightly lower share of 2016’s refugees were Christian (44%) than Muslim, the first time that has happened since fiscal 2006, when a large number of Somali refugees entered the U.S.”
And it was Syria and Somalia that sent the most refugees to American cities, according to Pew:
“Just two countries – Syria (12,486) and Somalia (9,012) – were the source of more than half of fiscal 2016’s Muslim refugees. The rest are from Iraq (7,853), Burma (Myanmar) (3,145), Afghanistan (2,664) and other countries (3,741).”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
