Refugees are led through the departure terminal to a bus that will take them from the Dulles International Airport to a refugee processing center after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 31, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia. The Department of Defense announced yesterday that the U.S. military had completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending 20 years of war.
Refugees are led through the departure terminal to a bus that will take them from the Dulles International Airport to a refugee processing center after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 31, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
  • Around 37,000 Afghan refugees will arrive in every US state except four in the coming weeks.
  • Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming won't host refugees in the first wave or arrivals.
  • California and Texas will accept the biggest numbers of refugees, the Associated Press reported.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

The first wave of around 37,000 Afghan refugees, many of whom endured a perilous journey to leave their homes, are set to arrive in every US state except Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming in the coming weeks, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

The Biden administration began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators on Wednesday how many refugees their state could expect to see in this first group, the report said.

All but four states – Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming – will welcome refugees, the report said. The District of Columbia will also not take on any resettled people in this first group.

California is expected to host the largest number of incoming refugees at over 5,200, Axios reported Thursday, followed by Texas at over 4,400. Alabama and Mississippi will see the fewest number of refugees among participating states, at 10 each.

Included in this first wave are Afghans who helped the US in Afghanistan and applied for a Special Immigrant Visa, Axios said.

Montana, which is set to host 75 refugees, saw Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale tweet his opposition to the move, saying he "strongly" opposes the resettlement and blamed a lack of a "traditional vetting process."

"Following the Biden Administration's disastrously mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan, I warned that we could not use this Administration's incompetence to justify flooding our communities with unvetted refugees," he wrote in a thread.

Claims that Afghan refugees are not being vetted, however, have been disputed by security screenings by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals, CNN reported earlier in the month.

President Joe Biden in late August emphasized background checks for refugees coming to the US.

"Anyone arriving in the United States will have undergone a background check," he said during a briefing.

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