The U.S. accepted more than 2,300 Syrian refugees in June, marking 5,000 since the beginning of the fiscal year and putting the government on track to surpass Barack Obama’s goal of 10,000 by the end of September, according to a report.
June's numbers set a record as Obama nears his goal set in January. More than 99 percent of those accepted in June are Sunni Muslims and just eight individuals identified themselves as Christian.
"We have just about crossed the 5,000 mark in terms of Syrian refugees and approximately 5,000 have been approved for resettlement and just have not been physically resettled yet in the United States, and another five or six thousand have been conditionally approved subject to those security checks." Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday. “I believe we will make the 10,000 (mark).”
Republican nominee Donald Trump has often spoke out against such policies, considering them a threat to national security.
“Our country has enough difficulty right now without letting the Syrians pour in,” Trump said in a National Border Patrol Council podcast earlier this month. “They could be ISIS. They could be who knows. But we’re going to stop that immediately.”
“They are letting tens of thousands of people come in from Syria, and nobody knows who these people are,” he said on Wednesday.
