U.S. vows to help Europe, but taking in additional migrants poses challenge

Washington • The Obama administration wants to help its allies across the Atlantic with their escalating migrant crisis but is unlikely to open America's doors to vast numbers of Syrian and other refugees arriving each day by the thousands in Europe.

While Germany braces for 800,000 asylum seekers this year, many fleeing Syria's civil war, the U.S. isn't saying if it will increase its worldwide quota for resettling refugees from 70,000. Only a fraction of those would be Syrians, who must first navigate a multiyear application process before learning if they can start a new life in the United States.

Secretary of State John Kerry plans to brief members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees Wednesday about how many Syrian refugees the U.S. is willing to take in.

When it comes to the migrant challenge, the U.S. and Europe are clearly in different places. Whereas the United States is separated by an ocean from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe's place adjacent to one of the world's most volatile regions makes it an obvious destination for people fleeing war, persecution and poverty. There are also no gut-wrenching images of refugees drowning while trying to swim or smuggle their way across 3,000 miles of open sea.

Still, a spokesman for the National Security Council said Monday the U.S. was "actively considering" steps to alleviate the situation in Europe, where more than 340,000 people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia now have arrived. Beyond Syria, many are also fleeing parts of Iraq that are under the Islamic State group's control.

The spokesman, Peter Boogaard, said the steps could include "refugee resettlement"

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday as for taking more Syrians and others in, "There is a process for doing this."

That process is slow. Refugees wait around three years to find out if they can move to the United States. Throughout Syria's 4½-year civil war, the U.S. has accepted only about 1,500 Syrians — a tiny percentage of the 11.6 million people who have been chased out of the country or uprooted from their homes by the war.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, the U.S. accepted more than 1 million refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In 1999, tens of thousands of mostly Muslim Kosovar Albanians were flown to the U.S., and ultimately resettled. During the Iraq war, more than 50,000 refugees were allowed to come under a special, expedited program for people whose religious beliefs or past work for the U.S. military put their lives at risk.

Asked directly if the Obama administration felt responsible to share Europe's refugee burden, Earnest stressed U.S. support thus far: $4 billion provided in humanitarian aid, more than any other country, and ongoing diplomatic work to resolve Syria's war peacefully. The diplomacy appears nowhere near ending violence that started in 2011 and led to Islamic State extremists seizing much of the country.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, said the U.S. has "a responsibility as well, to protect the American people and our country. Terrorists have exploited the refugee process to sneak into our country in the past, and officials have warned my committee that we lack the on-the-ground intelligence in Syria needed to confidently vet individuals for resettlement."