As the Syrian refugee crisis continues to get worse, politicians on both sides of the political aisle have called for the United States to increase the number of refugees it takes in from the region. The Obama administration has already increased the number of Syrian refugees accepted into the U.S. from 1500 to 10,000. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called for the U.S. to accept 75,000 Syrian refugees.
But according to a new Rasmussen Report, Americans are rejecting proposals to do so.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters say they want the government to allow no refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries into the United States. Another 20% only support President Obama’s initial proposal of allowing 10,000 refugees to resettle here. Just 22% agree with the administration's decision to allow in even more refugees, including seven percent (7%) who favor resettling 100,000 or more in this country.
These sentiments can partly be attributed to the 72% of voters who are concerned that giving thousands of Syrians asylum poses a national security risk to the United States, with 47% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-seven percent (27%) don’t share this concern, but that includes just 10% who are Not At All Concerned.
Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul has been warning for weeks about the national security threat refugees could pose to the United States.
Meanwhile, earlier today the European Union approved a controversial plan to distribute hundreds-of-thousands of refugees to a variety of different countries.