USA: White House says US will accept 10,000 Syrian refugees

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told journalists at a press conference in Washington D.C., Thursday, that US President Barack Obama had ordered his administration to make plans to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year. "This year, that will end, the fiscal year that will end at the end of this month the United States is on track to take in about 1,500 Syrian refugees. The president has directed his team to scale up that number next year and he's informed his team that he would like them to accept, at least make preparations to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year," Earnest said. Critics have said that the government's response was insufficient given the size of the United States and the scale of the ongoing refugee crisis. Germany, a country geographically smaller than Texas, has registered 450,000 migrants so far in 2015 and plans to take in 800,000 by the end of the year.