White House has told governors how many Afghan refugees they can expect to be resettled

The White House has informed governors about the number of Afghan refugees they can expect to be resettled in their states in coming weeks, an administration official told CNN Thursday.

Former Delaware governor Jack Markell and former FEMA acting head Bob Fenton, who are overseeing the resettlement efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and other senior White House officials made the calls to the governors on Wednesday, the official said.

According to the official, the allocations to each state were made under the new Afghan Placement and Assistance (APA) Program and were based on the initial 37,000 arrivals. Under the plan, California and Texas will have the highest allocations -- 5,255 and 4,481, respectively. Washington, Oklahoma, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New York and Virginia are also slated to resettle more than 1,000 Afghan refugees. Mississippi and Alabama are projected to resettle the lowest number of Afghans: 10 each.

"The purpose of the APA Program is to provide newly arrived Afghans with initial relocation services as they begin to rebuild their lives in the United States," the official said. "These services will be provided through local refugee resettlement agencies across the country."