How man Somali refugees did Obama setlle in US
Executive summary
The best available official counts show that roughly 54,000 Somali refugees were resettled in the United States during Barack Obama’s two full presidential terms (Jan. 2009–Jan. 2017), with the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center data commonly cited at about 54,514 arrivals for that period (reported variously as “around 54,000”) and widely confirmed by multiple fact-checking organizations and news outlets [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the headline number means — the national total and time frame
The figure journalists and fact-checkers cite refers to refugee admissions under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program across the entire country during Obama’s eight years in office; the State Department–derived total commonly given is approximately 54,000 Somali refugees (54,514 in some datasets) who arrived between Jan. 20, 2009, and Jan. 19, 2017 [1] [2] [3].
2. Where the claim “70,000 in Minnesota” came from and why it’s wrong
A persistent social-media meme claimed President Obama resettled 70,000 Somalis in Minnesota; that specific claim is false — the nationwide total during Obama’s terms was about 54,000, and only a fraction of those were placed in Minnesota (about 6,320 according to state and federal placement records cited by fact-checkers) — making the 70,000-in-Minnesota allegation factually impossible based on the relevant datasets [3] [4] [2].
3. Discrepancies in secondary reporting and the outliers
Some outlets and commentators produced lower or higher figures at various points — for example, opinion and advocacy pieces in 2016 cited “nearly 43,000” Somali refugees during Obama’s presidency (a figure repeated by several conservative outlets), while detailed refugee-processing tallies and fact-checkers consistently place the number near 54,000; these discrepancies reflect differences in data cutoffs, source selection and occasional aggregation errors rather than a single authoritative alternative total [5] [6] [1].
4. Year-by-year context, peak years and the role of FY2016
The flow of Somali refugees was not uniform across the eight years; fiscal year 2016 was a peak year for Somali referrals with roughly 9,012 Somali refugees admitted that fiscal year alone, and 2016 overall was notable because the Obama administration reached a high refugee ceiling (around 85,000 nationally), which concentrated admissions from a handful of countries including Somalia [7] [8].
5. What the data can and cannot tell readers about political impact or intent
Counting arrivals answers a narrow administrative question but does not prove intentional political engineering; fact-checkers have pointed out that the raw resettlement totals do not support claims that Obama “brought” tens of thousands of Somali voters to a single state to sway specific elections, and they note further limits — refugees arrive under cooperative federal-state placement systems, secondary internal moves occur, and many recent arrivals during Obama’s terms would not have been immediately eligible voters [4] [9]. The sources reviewed make clear the numerical claim (70,000 in Minnesota) is unsupported while the national tally of roughly 54,000 Somali refugees under Obama is well-documented [2] [1] [4].