Obama asks for America to open doors for 320,000 Syrian refugees

By Casey Jones

Syria currently is facing a crisis in the form of a civil war, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the nation, flooding into Europe and elsewhere.

This presents a problem: Where will they go?

Many European nations have opened their borders to these refugees, but they can only accept so many.

In the midst of all this, what is the U.S. doing? How does the government plan on tackling this?

President Barrack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have the answer in the form of a plan to accept 70,000 refugees this year, and increase the number to 100,000 a year by 2017, though this was increased to 180,000 in a recent amendment.

A brief, small-scale survey found that many HCC students have no idea of what’s happening in Syria — refugee crisis and all —while some were only slightly aware of the situation.

“I would like to be aware,” said Madison Watson, Hutchinson.

When asked about opinions on the current plan for the refugees, the opinions were split.

“I accept that [Obama’s plan] because there are a lot of under-populated places… but they might become isolated,” said Gregory Webb, Camden, New Jersey.

On the other side of the spectrum, Michelle Wortham, administrative assistant to the vice president of student services, said, “I don’t think we have the capability to house 180,000 refugees… we should pressure Russia to stop funding (Syrian ruler) Bashar al-Assad.”

Regardless of the view, it seems agreed upon that the U.S. needs to intervene in some way.

“I’d like to see the United States take more responsibility and help these people in need,” said Allen Pinkall, mathematics instructor.

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