The first Syrian family to be resettled in the U.S. under a speeded-up "surge operation" for refugees left Jordan on Wednesday for Kansas City, Missouri, to start a new life.
Ahmad al-Abboud, who is being resettled with his wife and five children, said he is thankful to Jordan, where he has lived for three years after fleeing Syria's civil war. But the 45-year-old from Homs, Syria, said he was ready to build a better life in the U.S.
First #Syrian #refugees arrive in #KansasCity. @41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/jyNFRbdyDI
— Terra Hall (@TerraHall) April 7, 2016
"I'm happy. America is the country of freedom and democracy, there are jobs opportunities, there is good education, and we are looking forward to having a good life over there," al-Abboud said.
"I am ready to integrate in the U.S. and start a new life," he told The Associated Press in Amman's airport before the family boarded a flight to Kansas City.
Al-Abboud said he wanted to learn English and find a job to support his family.
Since October, 1,000 Syrian refugees have moved to the U.S. from Jordan. President Barack Obama has set a target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by Sept. 30.
WEB EXTRA: The role of federal agencies in the refugee resettlement process
A resettlement center opened in Amman in February to help meet that goal, and about 600 people are interviewed every day at the center.
The temporary processing center will run until April 28, said U.S. Ambassador Alice Wells, who was at the airport to see the al-Abboud family depart.
Gina Kassem, the regional refugee coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, said that while the target of 10,000 applies to Syrian refugees living around the world, most will be resettled from Jordan.
"The 10,000 (figure) is a floor and not a ceiling, and it is possible to increase the number," Kassem told reporters.
While the resettlement process usually takes 18 to 24 months, the surge operation will reduce the time to three months, Kassem said.
The U.N. Refugee Agency prioritizes the most vulnerable cases for resettlement, and refers them to the U.S. to review, Kassem said. The priority is given to high-risk groups such as unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and gender-based violence, she said.
"We do not have exclusions or look for families with certain education background, language skills or other socio-economic factors, and we do not cut family sizes," she said.
Jordan hosts about 635,000 of the more than 4.7 million Syrians who have registered with the U.N. refugee agency after fleeing the war. The total number of Syrians in Jordan is more than 1.2 million, including those who arrived before the conflict began in 2011.
Controversy across the state line
Last fall, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback was one of 31 governors who expressed concern about Syrian refugees resettling in the United States. He signed an executive order banning any agency that receives state funding from helping with the relocation of Syrian refugees into the state. In a statement he added the measure was "to ensure terrorists do not enter the nation or our state under the guise of refugee resettlement."
That stance raises concerns for some in metro. The Rev. David Livingston, pastor of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, said, "I appreciate Governor Brownback's concern for the safety of Kansans but I think he's wrong."
The church has pledged to support a family of Syrian refugees like the one landing in Kansas City on Wednesday. "They've already been on the run for three years and to be able to finally have a place they know they're going to be able to stay for a while and that they're going to be in a place that they can call home" is why Livingston says his congregation wants to help.
In Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon released a statement saying that "the screening process for refugees is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and I call on our federal partners to implement the strongest possible safeguards to protect our state and nation."
State Rep. Mike Moon disagreed though, calling for a special session on blocking the entry of refugees into the country and state with the goal of "putting a stop to the potential Islamization of Missouri."
Fellow Rep. Jeremy LaFaver told 41 Action News, "I don't know if it was warranted or not but I understand that people are concerned about safety for the people they represent."
LaFaver trusts the vetting process and added, "The fact that a family has escaped a situation that we all know is devastating and has decided to choose our community and our state and our nation to develop a family, to create a family and to grow and to live a life of freedom, quite frankly is really exciting for me."
WATCH: Dia Wall reports on the controversy in the video below. (Can't see it? Watch it here.)
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