AMMAN, Jordan _ In this photo taken Sunday, August 28, 2016, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan, Alice Wells, addresses three Syrian families ahead of their departure to the United States. The families are... (Associated Press) 
 
 AMMAN, Jordan _ In this photo taken Sunday, August 28, 2016, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan, Alice Wells, addresses three Syrian families ahead of their departure to the United States. The families are part of a year-long U.S. resettlement program, and Wells said the target of taking in 10,000 Syrian... (Associated Press) 
 
 AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. will reach its target this week of taking in 10,000 Syrian war refugees in a year-old resettlement program, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan said Sunday, after meeting families headed to California and Virginia. 
 
 The resettlement program has emerged as an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with Republican nominee Donald Trump alleging displaced Syrians pose a potential security threat. 
 
 Alice Wells, the U.S. ambassador to Jordan, said Sunday that keeping Americans safe and taking in some of the world's most vulnerable people are not mutually exclusive. 
 
 "Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travelers to the United States, and Syrian refugees are subject to even greater scrutiny," she said. 
 
 Wells said the target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. in the 2016 fiscal year will be reached Monday, as several hundred Syrians depart from Jordan over 24 hours. 
 
 The Jouriyeh family, which attended Sunday's short ceremony, is headed to San Diego, California. 
 
 Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh, 49, a former construction worker from the war-ravaged Syrian city of Homs, said he feels "fear and joy, fear of the unknown and our new lives, but great joy for our children's lives and future." 
 
 Jouriyeh, who suffers from heart problems, will be traveling with his wife, Rajaa, 42, and their four children. Their oldest son, 14-year-old Mohammed, said he is eager to sign up for school in San Diego and hopes to study medicine one day. 
 
 The resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who were subjected to violence or torture or are sick. 
 
 Close to 5 million Syrians have fled civil war since 2011. Most struggle to survive in tough conditions in neighboring countries, including Jordan, which hosts close to 660,000 Syrian refugees. 
 
 Only a small percentage of Syrian refugees have been resettled to third countries. Instead, donor countries are trying to invest more in job creation and education for refugees in regional host countries to encourage them to stay there instead of moving onward, including to Europe. 
 
 Wells said the U.S. has taken in more refugees from around the world over the years than all other nations combined. ||||| AMSTERDAM — On April 30, 1941, a Jewish man here in Amsterdam wrote a desperate letter to an American friend, pleading for help emigrating to the United States. 
 
 “U.S.A. is the only country we could go to,” he wrote. “It is for the sake of the children mainly.” 
 
 A volunteer found that plea for help in 2005 when she was sorting old World War II refugee files in New York City. It looked like countless other files, until she saw the children’s names. 
 
 “Oh my God,” she said, “this is the Anne Frank file.” Along with the letter were many others by Otto Frank, frantically seeking help to flee Nazi persecution and obtain a visa to America, Britain or Cuba — but getting nowhere because of global indifference to Jewish refugees. 
 
 We all know that the Frank children were murdered by the Nazis, but what is less known is the way Anne’s fate was sealed by a callous fear of refugees, among the world’s most desperate people.
– The US will reach its target this week of taking in 10,000 Syrian war refugees in a year-old resettlement program as several hundred Syrians depart from Jordan over 24 hours, the US ambassador to Jordan said Sunday, after meeting families headed to California and Virginia. The resettlement program has emerged as an issue in the US presidential campaign, with Republican nominee Donald Trump alleging displaced Syrians pose a potential security threat. Alice Wells, the US ambassador to Jordan, said Sunday that keeping Americans safe and taking in some of the world's most vulnerable people are not mutually exclusive, the AP reports. "Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travelers to the United States, and Syrian refugees are subject to even greater scrutiny," she said. The resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who were subjected to violence or torture or are sick. Close to 5 million Syrians have fled civil war since 2011. Most struggle to survive in tough conditions in neighboring countries, including Jordan, which hosts close to 660,000 Syrian refugees. Only a small percentage of Syrian refugees have been resettled to third countries. Instead, donor countries are trying to invest more in job creation and education for refugees in regional host countries to encourage them to stay there instead of moving onward, including to Europe. Wells said the US has taken in more refugees from around the world over the years than all other nations combined. "[I feel] fear and joy, fear of the unknown and our new lives, but great joy for our children's lives and future," says Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh, 49, from the war-ravaged Syrian city of Homs. ("Anne Frank today is a Syrian girl," Nicholas Kristof writes for the New York Times.)