Since San Bernardino Attacks, CA Remains a Top Destination for Syrian Refugees

In the weeks following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino — in which a pair of Islamic extremists gunned down 14 people — California has remained among the top destinations for Syrian refugee resettlement.

Since December 2, the day of the brutal attacks in San Bernardino, California has received 26 Syrian refugees and is the state with the second most refugees resettled in that timeframe, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. Michigan has received the most Syrian refugees (29) since the attacks.

In total since the attacks on December 2, more than 192 Syrian refugees have been resettled in the U.S. All but one of the newly resettled Syrian refugees in that timeframe have been Muslim. The single Christian resettled since December 2 is Greek Orthodox.

In addition to Michigan and California, they have been placed in Wisconsin (3), Washington (6), Texas (21), Pennsylvania (11), Oregon (5), North Carolina (9), Nevada (5), Missouri (8), Minnesota (8), Kentucky (12), Kansas (1), Indiana (4), Illinois (15), Florida (23), Connecticut (5), and Arizona (1)

The refugees that have been placed in California since the attacks have been placed, according to the Processing Center database, in Anaheim (7), Fair Oaks (6), Irvine (7), and Moorpark (6).

California has received the most Syrian refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, taking 288 from March 15, 2011 through Wednesday. Texas has received the second most (263), followed by Michigan (253), Illinois (185), Arizona (183), Pennsylvania (174), Florida (165), Kentucky (113), and New Jersey (99).

The numbers of resettled Syrian refugees comes during a period of heightened alert due to the recent terrorist attacks in California and Paris as well as anxiety over the ability of the government to fully vet the Syrian refugees coming to the U.S. from terrorist hot spots.