A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies shows that the U.S. government can help twelve Syrian refugees who remain in the Middle East for every one refugee it relocates to the U.S. I urge you to support U.S. guidelines that advice against relocating refugees long distances and oppose any efforts to fund Syrian refugee resettlement.

The report shows that the five-year cost of resettling a Syrian refugee is $64,370 for an individual and $257,481 per household. This is more than twelve-times the $1,057 the UN is spending annually to care for each Syrian refugee in Turkey and Jordan. For what it would cost to relocate and care for 39,000 refugees, the U.S. could pay for the UN to take care of every Syrian refugee in the Middle East.

In addition to the obvious security concerns, relocating Syrians to the U.S. makes no financial sense. The UN recommends that refugees not be relocated far from their home countries so they can easily return when the conflict is over.

I urge you to make the right choice both for Syrian refugees and the United States and oppose efforts to relocate Syrians to the U.S.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA