European countries, Canada and the United States are facing calls to deny entry to refugees after French investigators said one of the Paris attackers was a Syrian national who may have slipped into Europe as part of a wave of migrants.
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Those sentiments are also shared by a growing number of governors all citing security concerns.
The Paris attacks have elevated national security in the presidential contest. “The US has a very strong vetting process”. The tens of thousands of people fleeing Syria for security and asylum are once again sidelined or left behind.
A Syrian passport found near the body of one of the men who carried out a terrorist attack in Paris on Friday has renewed focus on the thriving trade of forged or stolen Syrian documents amid the drastic increase in refugees and migrants attempting to reach Europe. Authorities stressed that the passport has not been authenticated. He and other government members support the idea of sending humanitarian aid to the Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon – but not letting them into Europe.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Sunday urged world leaders not to mistake genuine asylum seekers for terrorists. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley followed suit, tweeting, “I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm’s way”.
Snyder made essentially the same announcement and justification this morning, reports the Detroit Free Press. In a hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs on October 8th of this year, Director Comey said, “there are certain gaps…in the data available to us” in screening Syrian refugees. France can not stop every person from crossing its border. But, many people tell officials that they’ve lost their identity papers, and they can give false names and other information, including their country of origin. “This is no time for uncontrolled immigration”. As my colleague David Graham wrote Monday, “there’s no magic formula for striking the right balance of security and humanitarianism, but the process for [resettling] Syrian refugees is hardly cursory-in fact, until the Paris attacks, there was a great deal of criticism arguing it was far too strict”. Almost 700,000 people have arrived there since January – a few 72,000 in the month of November alone. Performing background checks on people coming from a failed state can be hard, but the program is set up to bring in the most vulnerable – the sick, the maimed, women, children and the elderly.
Pennsylvania has a rich, multi-century tradition of accepting immigrants, Wolf said, and that should continue. “Paris changes everything”, said German politician Markus Soeder.
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U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, a Republican who represents most of Lancaster County in the House, on Monday co-sponsored a bill that would make Christian and Yazidi refugees a priority. But not all states are turning away, such as Delaware. Speaking at the G20 Summit today, President Obama explained precisely why it is the wrong approach: “The values that we are fighting against ISIS for are precisely that we don’t discriminate against people based on their faith”. While they are legally defined as refugees in those countries, the obligation for 3rd party countries to take in refugees from the host countries is not a matter of direct urgency.
