Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) was one of 47 Democrats to vote yes on the legislation, leading the House to a majority that can override President Obama’s promised veto of the bill.
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A bill to halt the admission of refugees from Syria and Iraq into the US passed in the U.S. House on Thursday with the support of all four members from Arkansas.
Rep. Steven Palazzo (R- Miss.) supported the SAFE Act, tweeting earlier this week, “Refugees from the Middle East should be resettled in the Middle East, not here in America”. The act aims to establish background checks for Syrian and Iraqi refugees seeking admittance into the United States, according to a press release from Davis’ office.
As currently structured, the House plan would give the President the money he wants for refugee resettlement and then leave taxpayers on the hook now and in the years to come for the tens of billions of dollars in uncapped welfare, education, and entitlement costs certain to accrue.
The bill was rushed through in response to last Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris.
“Since its inception, the United States has been a haven for immigrants and refugees from around the world, and I’m proud of that tradition”.
“I think it will pass because the American people are very, very concerned, as is the average congressman, regarding making sure that we keep Americans safe”, Boozman said. “However, in maintaining that promise, we also need to maintain our promise of defending the American people from the very real threats our enemies pose”.
“ISIS has already indicated they want to attack further places in the West including the United States of America”, he said.
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After saying that it’s possible the SAFE Act would be so strict as to effectively block any Syrians from obtaining refugee status in the U.S., Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colorado) told 9NEWS Thursday he believed it would be possible to eventually ensure that a few Syrians could be screened. The American SAFE Act is really about creating unreasonably burdensome bureaucratic hurdles to make it significantly more hard for refugees to gain asylum – all without making Americans safer.
