REFUGEES IN AMERICA - Syrian Family

"Syrian family resettled in U.S. sees future for their children" PBS NewsHour 9/21/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Obama administration plans to settle as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. within a year.  Special correspondent Marcia Biggs meets a refugee family who fled in 2012 and have begun life over in New Jersey.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  The Obama administration’s plans to settle as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. within a year is coming under fire.

In a statement released Sunday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, both Republicans, said the Islamic State group will use the refugee crisis to try to enter the United States and that the administration doesn’t have a concrete and foolproof plan to ensure that terrorists won’t be able to enter the country.

So far, fewer than 2,000 refugees have settled here.

Tonight, the story of one family that recently arrived.

Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports.

MARCIA BIGGS (NewsHour):  It’s a theme that played out all over America this month, children getting ready for their first days of school.  But for this family, it’s an entirely new kind of fresh start.

Mohamed and Amira Darbi and their three children arrived only two months ago, five of the roughly 1,700 Syrian refugees that the United States has taken in since 2011.

MOHAMED DARBI, Resettled Syrian Refugee (through interpreter):  I have been in the U.S. for 50 days now, and I like it.

MARCIA BIGGS:  “And before the 50 days?”  I asked.

MOHAMED DARBI (through interpreter):  I didn’t know what America meant.

MARCIA BIGGS:  Mohamed and Amira are from Homs, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution.  He was a carpenter and she a high school physics teacher.

All three children were small in 2011, when the revolution began and Bashar al-Assad issued a brutal crackdown on their town.