A refugee is helped following her arrival on the Greek island of Lesbos, Oct. 1

DEARBORN — Political leaders and community organizations at the local and national levels urged the White House to increase the number of Syrian refugees to be accepted into the United States.

Last month President Obama pledged to grant asylum status to 10,000 Syrians over the next year.

ACCESS and the Arab American and Chaldean Council (ACC), Michigan’s leading Arab American aid nonprofits, which provide services to refugees, both asked the government to grant asylum status to a greater number of Syrians.

“We are absolutely ready and willing to accommodate more refugees from Syria,” ACC President Haifa Fakhouri told The Arab American News. “We ask the government to allow more refugees to come here. We feel the agony of distress of the people fleeing war in the Middle East and we should comfort them to the best of our ability.”

The ACC president urged the community to be united in advocating on behalf of refugees and help provide them with shelter, healthcare and employment, once they arrive.

Asked about concerns that refugees might be a burden on American society, Fakhouri responded, “that’s nonsense.” She added that the United States has always been a welcoming country.

“This country was built by immigrants and refugees,” she said. “throughout our history, we have welcomed refugees from all over the world, regardless of the few ignorant bigots who oppose immigration. We have that humanitarian element.”

Hassan Jaber, the executive director of ACCESS, said the United States and Europe can do more to help refugees.

“The images we are getting are horrible,” Jaber said. “Not only the child who died on the beach, the daily humiliation refugees are facing and the scale of this tragedy are heartbreaking.”

He described the number of refugees to be admitted by the U.S. next year as “ridiculous.” Jaber urged Arab Americans to put pressure on the administration to increase it. 

“We can mobilize our community to add our voice to the humanitarian organizations across the country that are asking the government to more,” he said. 

“The research and the data and the facts are that immigrants and refugees have added to the U.S. economy four times what they have taken from it, especially in entrepreneurship,” Jaber said in response to right-wing commentators who reject refugees.

Gov. Snyder welcomes refugees

Gov. Snyder said Tuesday that Michigan is in talks with the federal government and social services organizations to determine the number of refugees the state will accept.

“I don’t want to overreact to say it’s a certain number, or we’re going to do this, but I think it’s worth exploring and making sure we have a program and do that homework,” Snyder told reporters in Lansing.

The governor added that by helping people, the state can create economic opportunities.

Snyder said asylum-seekers have been great business people, traditionally. “They were professionals, they were people that hire people, that tend to create jobs. And the evidence supports that.”

According to a document sent to The Arab American News by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the state accepted 2,239 refugees the last fiscal year, including 1,146 from Iraq and only 75 from Syria. 

Security concerns

Several ranking Republicans in Congress have expressed security concerns about admitting refugees. Presidential candidate Donald Trump said asylum-seekers could be ISIS members, pledging to send them back to Syria if elected.

Maya Berry, the executive director of The Arab American Institute, dismissed the claims. She said the United States already has an effective screening process for potential refugees.

Berry said refusing refugees under the premise that they could pose a threat to the United States is “intellectually dishonest.”

Fewer than 2,500 Syrians had been granted asylum status in the United States by April.

Berry slammed the U.S. government for the low number of displaced Syrians it has accepted since the beginning of the war in 2011.

“It’s absolutely shameful,” she said. “Everybody talks about how complicated the situation in Syria is and it distracts from what we can do. Accepting refugees is something we can do.”

Peters sends letter to Obama

After visiting the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, which houses close to 80,000 Syrians, last month, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich) told The Arab American News that accepting just 10,000 refugees in a year is an “inadequate” number.

On Wednesday, Peters sent a letter to President Obama urging the United States to resettle at least 100,000 from Syria and Iraq, including displaced people from persecuted religious minorities, in the coming years. The senator advocated for accepting 30,000 refugees from the region in fiscal year 2016.

“The world has been moved by the plight of refugees who have undertaken life-threatening journeys to escape violence and persecution,” the senator wrote. “Many of those seeking admission to the United States are members of ancient peoples whose historical homeland has been ravaged by war and terror. These are people who would prefer to remain at home in peace, but are unfortunately compelled to flee in hopes of achieving basic security for their families.”

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) also urged the president to accept more people from Syria, in an interview with The Arab American News last month.