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Joe Biden to Resettle Afghans in 46 States, Many Going to Swing States

President Joe Biden’s administration is planning to resettle the first group of Afghans brought to the United States across 46 states with many headed to battleground and swing states like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.

Biden has said he hopes to resettle about 95,000 Afghans across the U.S. over the next 12 months. In a 21-day period from August to September, Biden brought more than 48,000 Afghans to the U.S. for resettlement — a population more than four times that of Jackson, Wyoming.

An initial 37,000 Afghans will be resettled by the Biden administration across 46 states, according to numbers published by the Associated Press and Axios this week. California will get the most Afghans, 5,255, while Texas will have nearly 4,500 Afghans resettled in the state.

In major swing states, thousands of Afghans will be resettled, including:

  • 1,610 in Arizona
  • 865 in Colorado
  • 1,030 in Florida
  • 1,069 in Georgia
  • 695 in Iowa
  • 100 in Maine
  • 1,280 in Michigan
  • 275 in Minnesota
  • 150 in Nevada
  • 1,169 in North Carolina
  • 855 in Ohio
  • 995 in Pennsylvania
  • 4,481 in Texas
  • 1,166 in Virginia
  • 399 in Wisconsin

Many red states, such as Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee, will have hundreds of Afghans resettled in their states as well, along with deep blue states like Washington, Connecticut, New York, and Oregon.

An official told Axios that no Republican governors balked at having the Biden administration resettle Afghans in their states:

{snip}

Over the last 20 years, nearly a million refugees have been resettled in the nation — more than double that of residents living in Miami, Florida, and it would be the equivalent of annually adding the population of Pensacola, Florida.

Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to research, and each refugee costs taxpayers about $133,000 over the course of their lifetime. {snip}