Mpls. demonstrators urge U.S. to take in more refugees

Updated 3:48 p.m. | Posted 12:24 p.m.

Syrian Americans in the Twin Cities are calling on the U.S. government to grant asylum to thousands of refugees of Syria's civil war.

"These are vulnerable people fleeing from conflict and we have a responsibility to do more to help them," said Suzan Boulad, a 26-year-old Syrian American and University of Minnesota law student.

She organized a rally Sunday afternoon at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis to draw attention to the refugee crisis gripping Europe and the world.

Boulad has family members among the refugees. Her aunt and uncle fled from the city of Homs to Jordan; a cousin left by boat for Libya and went on to Germany. So far everyone is alive and accounted for. The U.S. has taken in about 1,500 Syrian refugees in the last four years. And a State Department spokesman says another 1,500 could be admitted by the end of the year.

"That's really just a drop in the bucket, so right off the bat the U.S. should let in more refugees," Boulad said.

Boulad supports a plan by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and other Senate Democrats to allow 65,000 Syrian refugees to settle in the United States. But Boulad acknowledges it could be a tough political fight because of fears over allowing members of ISIS and al Qaeda into the country.

Mazen Halabi, who came from Syria to the U.S. in 1983 and now lives in the Twin Cities, has a brother and a sister still in Damascus. Halabi says other relatives have left the country and he'd like them to come to the U.S.

"I know that there are other people that may be in more need than my immediate family," Halabi said. "And there are refugees in camps in Jordan and Lebanon and Turkey that haven't eaten for awhile and children that are on the verge of starvation at this point."

While much of the world's attention is focused on Syrian refugees seeking asylum in Europe, Halabi points out that there are around eight million people forced to flee their homes but are still living in Syria. He says these internally displaced people are not receiving the kind of aid from the United Nations and other groups that many refugees are. And Halabi says they're also facing the daily threat of bombs and gas attacks from a regime desperate to stay in power.