#HouseDemocrats are calling on the #Obamaadministration to dramatically increase the number of #Syrianrefugees allowed into the US. The #WhiteHouse has already pledged to let in 10,000 refugees over the next year, but that is being called insufficient. “It is our moral duty, as a nation founded on the principles of equality and #freedom, to do what we can to assist our brethren who are in desperate turmoil, and are searching for the slightest gesture of goodwill,” wrote 72 #Democrats from the US House of Representatives in a letter to the administration on Friday, according to the Hill. Lawmakers said the country could easily support the resettlement of as many as 130,000 #Syrian refugees, a figure 10 times that proposed by the White House earlier this week. The letter was spearheaded by Representative David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island). “The United States is home to 320 million people,” lawmakers wrote. “Allowing an additional 130,000 refugees into our country would make up less than a quarter of one percent of our population.” The #Obama administration has been sharply criticized by the EU on the relatively few refugees the US has been willing to accept, stating Washington wasn’t doing enough compared to other countries in the #MiddleEast and #Europe. Criticism mounted after a heartbreaking photograph appeared several days ago of a drowned 3-year-old refugee, #AylanKurdi, whose body washed ashore shore in #Turkey. “How can we tell little Aylan’s family that we simply can’t manage to welcome them, that it would be too dangerous, or take away jobs? Surely we can do better,” the letter reads. The US has already contributed about $4 billion to help Syrian refugees abroad, but in 2014 it accepted only 132 Syrians refugees out of the 4 million that have fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011.

#HouseDemocrats are calling on the #Obamaadministration to dramatically increase the number of #Syrianrefugees allowed into the US. The #WhiteHouse has already pledged to let in 10,000 refugees over the next year, but that is being called insufficient. “It is our moral duty, as a nation founded on the principles of equality and #freedom, to do what we can to assist our brethren who are in desperate turmoil, and are searching for the slightest gesture of goodwill,” wrote 72 #Democrats from the US House of Representatives in a letter to the administration on Friday, according to the Hill. Lawmakers said the country could easily support the resettlement of as many as 130,000 #Syrian refugees, a figure 10 times that proposed by the White House earlier this week. The letter was spearheaded by Representative David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island). “The United States is home to 320 million people,” lawmakers wrote. “Allowing an additional 130,000 refugees into our country would make up less than a quarter of one percent of our population.” The #Obama administration has been sharply criticized by the EU on the relatively few refugees the US has been willing to accept, stating Washington wasn’t doing enough compared to other countries in the #MiddleEast and #Europe. Criticism mounted after a heartbreaking photograph appeared several days ago of a drowned 3-year-old refugee, whose body washed ashore shore in #Turkey. “How can we tell little Aylan’s family that we simply can’t manage to welcome them, that it would be too dangerous, or take away jobs? Surely we can do better,” the letter reads. The US has already contributed about $4 billion to help Syrian refugees abroad, but in 2014 it accepted only 132 Syrians refugees out of the 4 million that have fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011.