The Obama administration is planning to increase the number of refugees it will allow into the U.S. in 2017 to at least 110,000, NBC News reported.
It's a 30 percent increase over the current fiscal year and a more than 57-percent jump since 2015. The increase "is consistent with our belief that all countries should do more to help the world's most vulnerable people," a State Department official told NBC News.
Of the 110,000 refugees the U.S. intends to admit, at least 40,000 are from the Near East and South Asia, a White House senior administration official said. Most have been trying to flee the Syrian civil war.
The administration's move comes as many GOP lawmakers and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump warn that Islamic terrorists could be hiding among the refugees.
