The U.S. State Department has set a goal of admitting 110,000 refugees to the United States in Fiscal 2017, a 29.4 percent increase from the FY 2016 target of 85,000, “but at this point, no country-specific targets have been set,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday.
“I do have the regional breakdown here,” Earnest continued. “[T]he regional target for FY 2017 is 40,000 for the Near East and South Asia region.”
The Near East includes Middle Eastern countries and northern Africa. South Asia includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and surrounding countries.
Earnest said vetting the refugees is “not cheap,” and he indicated that President Obama might admit even more of them, if only Republicans would provide more money for that purpose:
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