The numbers are relatively small: just 2,000 refugees, compared to an estimated two million people who have fled Syria during the civil war. But it’s a significant increase from the 90 or so Syrian refugees who have been permanently admitted to the U.S. in the last two years. And it’s not entirely uncontroversial. The refugees, mostly women and children, will be screened for terrorist ties — a process that could take a year or more to complete…

While aid workers welcome the decision to let in more refugees, concerns remain about the time it will take to process the applications and move them into the U.S. “It’s 90 degrees now, but in a few months it’s going to snow and people are going to be freezing,” Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America’s senior humanitarian policy advisor, told The Cable. “They don’t have many options and many are living in unfinished buildings, abandoned shopping malls, schools, mosques and parking garages.”

But the eligible refugees will have to wait out the cold. By Clements’ own admission, given application processing times, “We’re not likely to see Syrian refugees into those numbers before well into 2014.”