That’s according to a count provided by the DFW International Community Alliance, a network of internationally-focused organizations in North Texas. From their press release today:
Total number of Syrian refugees: 102.
Number of refugee families (including single men): 24.
All but 6 of those who were resettled by volags (resettlement agencies under contract with the State Dept) live in Dallas. 5 families live in Fort Worth. One single man lives in Arlington. Three of the families originally resettled in Dallas have moved to Richardson.
8 of the 24 arrived by ‘other visas’ and applied for TPS, and subsequently for political asylum. Three of the 8 political asylee Syrians are families. Four are single men and one is a married man who is waiting for the arrival of his wife and children. One of the single men was studying here on a prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Most of these men were brutally tortured and their homes / businesses burned during their captivity and subsequently fled to Lebanon and from there to the US.
Homeland Security’s intensive investigations of each refugee family has caused an unprecedented delay in arrivals. No families have arrived from Turkey (where the largest number of Syrian refugees currently resides) in the past 9 months. One family reached Dallas from Uzbekastan last week. They are a Kurdish Syrian family from the NE of the country. Two months ago the large family of a disabled Syian reached Fort Worth.
Two families, brothers of a Syrian who lives in Richardson, are scheduled to arrive on Dec. 4. We are uncertain at this moment if they will be permitted to join their relatives on that date.
Sorry, Gov. Abbott, they’re already here.
