Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein joined a group of thirteen other senators in calling on President Barack Obama to significantly increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed to resettle in the United States. The Syrian conflict has led to the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis and the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

“Our nation’s founders came to our shores to escape religious persecution and the United States has a long tradition of providing safe haven to refugees,” the senators wrote. “The United States traditionally accepts at least 50 percent of resettlement cases from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). However, we have accepted only approximately 700 refugees since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, an unacceptably low number. While the United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, we must also dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement.”

The letter was also signed by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).

Full text of the senators’ letter can be found here.