As President Obama’s administration prepares for the arrival of French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, the criticism grows over his handling of ISIS and Syrian refugees.
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The American backlash against Syrian refugees began soon after the November 13 Paris attacks when it was thought that one of the terrorists had come to France with a Syrian passport.
Spokesman says rightwing rhetoric shows disrespect for refugees and migrants.. This makes me think back to 2009, when a flaw in the screening of Iraqi refugees allowed two al Qaeda-linked terrorists to enter the United States and settle in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Refugee resettlement is primarily a federal matter, with states acting as conduits for USA funding to local, often faith-based nonprofits.
Despite serious concerns regarding national security, this vote was not taken lightly.
The SAFE Act would immediately suspend the Syrian refugee resettlement program, prohibiting the admission of refugees from Iraq and Syria into the US until the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director certifies the background of each refugee, and until the Federal Bureau of Investigation Director, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence certify to the American people’s representatives in Congress that each refugee is not a security threat to the United States.
Over the summer, a U.S. Transportation Security Administration report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found that 73 aviation workers, employed by airlines and vendors, had alleged links to terrorism. The United States of America, of course.
NOW: In an interview on CBSN, O’Malley said the current vetting process for refugees is elaborate and that no group is more thoroughly vetted than Syrian refugees.
If Obama wants to take in refugees from the chaos in Syria, there are probably plenty of vacant rooms in the White House.
Speaking in Turkey, which is 98% Muslim, Obama said: “When I hear folks say that maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, that’s shameful”. We can be confident that a free society would devise methods of joint suretyship by which strangers could be vouched for, giving others confidence in dealing with them safely.
“The American people are right to be concerned”, Obama said Sunday.
Obama also met the older refugees who will soon relocate to the USA and declared that “they represent the opposite of terror, the opposite of the type of despicable violence we saw in Mali and Paris”.
Sunday’s march, organized by the Syrian People Solidarity Group, was to spread the message that Syrian refugees are welcome in Central Texas. Were we to lift up the drawbridge and hide behind our walls, we would be shutting out heroes like Muhammad Gulab who risked everything to save American lives.
And while presidential contenders are posturing about Christianity, maybe the rest of us would be better off acting like the Judeo-Christians the nation claims to be when it comes to families who have lost everything.
NOW: Bush said the USA refugee program should give preference to Christians fleeing Syria, but said he’s open to letting properly vetted Muslim Syrians into the country as well.
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The state Health and Human Services Commission told volunteer organizations in the state last week not to help Syrian refugees. And on Thursday, Ben Carson compared Syrian refugees to dogs. We have a rigorous screening process when we accept refugees. Unlike global students, foreign workers, individuals who seek political asylum after they have entered the USA, reuniting family members and various other immigrants, refugees are a prioritized category of people admitted explicitly and exclusively on the basis of humanitarian need.
