Documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show that 680,000 green cards have already been issued to immigrants from Muslim nations over the past five years—with tens of thousands more coming, the Washington Examiner revealed.
The report noted that the number of Muslim immigrants for the past five years alone is already bigger than the population of Washington D.C., the nation's capital, which has 658,893 residents based from the latest census.
With President Barack Obama's open-door immigration policy, more than 100,000 refugees mainly from Syria are expected to settle in the U.S. in the next five years. The number could grow even further as the refugees can also petition the government for their relatives, the report said.
The DHS data was released by Sen. Jeff Sessions' Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. The House panel noted that the refugees are granted instant access to federal welfare and entitlements, along with local benefits and education services.
The DHS number of 680,000 does not even include temporary migrants who return home or babies born in refugee families.
The Census Bureau noted that the foreign-born population in the United States is already at a record of 41.3 million.
Sessions' subcommittee is considering limits to green cards and student visas.
"Without such changes, the Census Bureau projects that, for each coming year the total number of immigrants in the United States will increase, the annual rate of immigrant admissions will increase, and the foreign-born share of the population will increase," said the Alabama Republican's subcommittee report.
It noted that based on data gathered by the Pew Research Center, 83 percent of the public (across all parties) opposes new immigrant admissions and calls for the freezing or the reduction of the number of these admissions.
"By a nearly 10-1 margin, Americans of all backgrounds are united in their shared belief that companies with positions to fill should raise wages instead of bringing in new lower-wage labor from abroad," the report said.
While his subcommittee is calling for a halt on new immigrants, Sessions said Obama's Senate allies are calling for tripling the number of green cards being issued over the next decade. One of their bills "would substantially increase both low-wage guest worker admissions and green card allotments – all on top of the existing record-breaking and unprecedented growth in future immigration," the subcommittee report added.
