We’ve brought in over 100,000 refugees, total, from Somalia in the last 30 years.
The program was curtailed and the number of new refugees slowed to a trickle after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on New York and Washington, D.C.
The program gradually picked up steam again under President George W. Bush, as the number of Somalis entering the U.S. as refugees swelled to 10,000 or more in three consecutive fiscal years, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
We set these seed communities up, and then they apply for family reunification to bring family members and extended families members as well.
Once you get the seed program going, it’s never ending.