South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin writes for Al-Monitor on the US policy towards Syrian refugees:
Anne Richard, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, told Al-Monitor in an interview Sept. 8 that the United States is continuing to process Syrians and other would-be refugees according to a lengthy and stringent process that emphasizes weeding out those who could pose possible security threats to the United States.
“The days of airlifts [of refugees] to Guam and Fort Dix, N.J., ended on Sept. 11, 2001,” Richard said, referring to the increase in US scrutiny of foreigners that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by al-Qaeda.