The U.S. will open its doors to tens of thousands more refugees next year, the Obama administration announced this week.
But not if Sam Graves can stop them.
The Republican congressman from Missouri has proposed a bill that would cut off the funding needed to implement the president’s plan or any other refugee increase.
Graves argues the increase puts an “undue burden” on communities and national security officials.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen all the dangerous unintended consequences of uncapped refugee programs in Europe,” Graves said in a statement. “We can’t let the same thing happen here.”
A total of 1,614 refugees — including 340 from war-torn Syria — have resettled in Graves’ home state of Missouri so far this year. Seven hundred and fifty-eight moved to neighboring Kansas. Of those, 32 were from Syria.
They were among 85,000 refugees who have arrived to start new lives in the U.S. in 2016. The Obama administration has proposed increasing the number of refugees admitted to America by 30 percent in 2017, to 110,000.
An unprecedented 65 million people were displaced by conflict or prosecution last year, even more than were uprooted after World War II, United Nations statistics show.
That works out to an average of 24 people around the world who were forced to flee their homes each minute.
Lindsay Wise: 202-383-6007, @lindsaywise