Since the civil war broke out in Syria four years ago, the United States has accepted 1,500 refugees into the country out of the 17,000 people reffered by the U.N. TIME reports President Barack Obama is willing to take in 10,000 Syrians from the originally proposed.
This is the White House's response to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe - with tens of thousands of refugees from Middle East and Africa landing in Austria, Germany, and now, Greece - which is struggling with its financial crisis as well.
According to White House spokesman John Earnest, the administration has decided to welcome more of these resettlers on the next budget year beginning October 1 - in addition to spending about $4 billion to relief agencies and humanitarian projects.
This decision came about when the White House was faced with heavy pressure following the pledges of U.S. allies - to take in huge numbers out of the 340,000 Middle Easterns and Africans struggling for asylums. As previously reported, Germany has pledged 31,000 refugees, 24,000 for France, and 20,000 for UK.
Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers on Wednesday that the U.S. will be increasing its worldwide quota - about 70,000 to 75,000 in the following year.
"I believe that the President has made it clear he wants the United States -- which has always taken a leadership role with respect to humanitarian issues and particularly refugees -- to be able to do what we can," Kerry told CNN.
"We are committed to increasing the number of refugees we take and we are looking hard at the number we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe and their migration today."
According to TIME, there are reportedly a total of 11.6 million people victimized and chased out of Syria due to civil war since 2011.
