WATCH: (Scroll Down For Video) Hillary Clinton has called on the Obama administration yesterday to bring 65,000 Syrians into the United States.
‘We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II and I think the United States has to do more,’ the former secretary of state said on Face the Nation.
President Barack Obama had ordered his administration earlier this month to approve at least 10,000 Syrian migrants for resettlement in the United States over the next year.
Today, his secretary of state, John Kerry, said the U.S. would increase its current cap on the number of refugees from around the world it takes in from all countries by 15,000.
‘I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000 and begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in, looking to really emphasize some of those who are most vulnerable,’ the former secretary of state said.
‘A lot of the persecuted, the religious minorities, including Christians and some who have been brutalized, like the Yazidi women,’ Clinton articulated.
Clinton’s Democratic rival for the presidency, Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, was the first politician to specifically mention the number 65,000. A spokesman for the Clinton campaign has yet to return a request for comment as to why Clinton settled on that number as well.
O’Malley said in a statement after his opponent’s appearance, ‘I’m glad Secretary Clinton has joined my call to welcome 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2017. America must show moral leadership in the world.
‘But to do so, we must forge – not follow – public opinion, and be unafraid to call for what’s right in the face of a crisis,’ he said.
