Our country is better than this.
Advertisement
“This is more than about refugees”, Harper says, “we need to keep our eye on the bigger picture”. We can not simply force pockets of refugees into communities that have vocally opposed their resettlement.
Myth: It’s impossible to thoroughly vet Syrians, given the ongoing conflict. This ignores the grim realities of the situation on the ground as well as susceptibility to radicalization once refugees arrive.
Moulton, in a column published in the Boston Globe, said that Islamic State, which also is known as ISIS and has claimed responsibility for the attacks in France this month that killed about 130 people, has focused on using social media to recruit people overseas, rather than exporting fighters. Rep. Cedric Richmond, the only Democrat in the delegation, voted against it.
Notably, despite the President’s veto threat, the SAFE Act passed the House with a veto-proof majority. It will be introduced in the Senate after Thanksgiving.
Fact: We have, for years, safely admitted smaller numbers of Syrian refugees and we have a great deal of experience screening and admitting larger numbers of refugees from other chaotic environments, including where intelligence holdings are limited. It can make even the most principled political leaders take actions that betray the nation’s heritage of taking the “huddled masses” of the world.
Stay tuned to FAIR as details unfold…
Several Republicans on the Judiciary Committee pressed Attorney General Lynch on Comey’s testimony that the disarray in Syria prevents meaningful background checks on the refugees. Many refugees are victims of terrorists. Considering there are millions of Syrian refugees, how does your department narrow that down? “When you call, tell the receptionist that as a constituent, you want to help WELCOME Syrian refugees and that you are against the calls of some governors to reject Syrian refugees”, it reads. This shows a lack of understanding for the intense screening that every refugee to the USA must undergo.
As the number of immigrants dislocated by the war in Syria grows in Europe, pressure is increasing on the United States to share the burden of resettling refugees from the war pouring into Europe. Administration officials have stressed that prospective refugees go through extensive security checks that can take up to two years. To me, that does not even seem like they are a refugee.
Henshaw is confident the odds of trouble are very low. That does not happen with the US resettlement program.
Of the 784,000 refugees resettled in the US since 9/11, three have been arrested for terrorist activities (two of the three were planning attacks outside of the U.S.). After the interviews are successfully completed, the refugees’ cases are sent back to State Department’s headquarters for one final review. While Pence said he had sympathy for the Syrian family, he said his first job was to ensure the security of the people of Indiana. In the NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, the president’s approval rating is 43%-down 3% from October and the lowest level recorded in this survey in 2015.
Blunt has been calling on Obama to put together a comprehensive plan to combat ISIS since the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.
“States may not deny [Office of Refuge Resettlement]-funded benefits and services to refugees based on a refugee’s country of origin or religious affiliation”.
The vetting process is always being examined.
“Decisions concerning immigration and refugee resettlement are exclusively the province of the federal government, and attempts to pre-empt that authority violate both equal protection and civil rights laws and intrude on authority that is exclusively federal”, said ACLU of IN legal director Ken Falk IN a press release.
World Vision has recommended Congress move quickly to fund critical humanitarian relief accounts including Migration and Refugee Assistance, worldwide Disaster Assistance and Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance which would cost about $5 billion for 2016. “So all of the dataset, the police, the intel services that normally you would go to seek information doesn’t exist”.
Last week the White House held an emergency call with 34 governors who had expressed opposition to having refugees placed into their states.
Advertisement
The figure is higher than the entire population of Washington, DC, and will repeat itself in the next five years unless immigration policies are changed, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Obama administration and many others argue the added layers of bureaucracy are not needed.
