Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, along with seventeen other U.S. mayors, sent a letter to President Obama last Thursday saying that their cities are willing to welcome more Syrian refugees. In addition, they urged the President to take in more Syrian migrants than the 10,000 number that he had originally proposed.
The letter reads, “we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement.”
Cities United for Immigration Action coordinated the letter from the mayors with Pope Francis’s visit to Washington D.C. last week, stating, “On the same day Pope Francis called for the acceptance of immigrants, a group of 18 mayors from across the country, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and others have joined forces to call on President Obama to welcome additional refugees beyond the number his administration has agreed to accept.”
Notably, the letter is nowhere to be found on the list of Mayor Hodges’s press releases.
Back in January, Hodges signed onto an amicus brief in support of President Obama’s executive action on amnesty for an estimated 1.2 million illegal immigrants.
The Obama administration announced last week that the U.S. will increase its annual refugee quota from 70,000 to 85,000 next fiscal year, which begins October 1st. The number will increase to 100,000 in fiscal year 2017.
According to the Washington Post, Minnesota is in the top 20% nationally at refugee resettlement.
Full text of Hodges letter: