The United States devotes a ton of resources toward making sure no one with connections to terrorism is admitted to the country.
Unfortunately, that leaves many Syrian refugees waiting potentially for years before they can be granted asylum in the US.
Currently, the process to admit a refugee into America takes 18 to 24 months. Almost all of that time is spent in an attempt to vet a refugee for connections to terrorism.
So although President Barack Obama told his staff that the country would be increasing the number of refugees admitted by 10,000 beginning in October, those applying won't have the process sped up at all.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the current crisis gives ISIS a chance to "infiltrate operatives among these refugees,"according to CNN.
Roughly 1,500 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the United States since the Syrian conflict started in 2011, CNN reports. Most of those have been admitted just this year. In 2011, just 23 were taken in, followed by 41, 45, 249, and 1,199 in each successive year.
"What we're trying to do is weed out people who are liars, who are criminals or would-be terrorists,"a senior State Department official told CNN.
The lengthy vetting process is why the US is still behind on commitments it made to bring in Iraqi refugees, Vox reports.
That vetting process requires plenty of intelligence sources on the ground. Since the United States hadn't planned on taking in a lot of Syrian refugees until recently, those ground resources haven't been in place, according to Vox.
That's bad news for Syrians looking for asylum in America.
Refugees from other nations — such as Albanians from Kosovo in 1999— have had their processes sped up while being welcomed in greater numbers. But the proliferation of terrorist groups in Syria makes the possibility of an expedited migration process a long shot.
No one who has a proven connection to terrorism, or has provided any kind of support to a terrorist group, can be admitted to the US. But neither can anyone who is related to someone who has, including children.
The United States has received more than 11,000 applications from Syrian refugees just within the past few months, The Guardian reports.
“There are challenges with screening and vetting refugees, and selecting them and then helping them start over, and the challenges they themselves face starting over,”Anne Richard, the US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said, per The Guardian. “But overall the resettlement program tends to be very successful, and is a very fine American tradition.”
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Forget Ivanka — here’s the Trump daughter nobody’s talking about