Looking to increase security measures after the Paris terrorist attacks; the House approved the legislation that would halt the resettlement of more refugees coming from Syria and Iraq to the U.S.
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Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson have sent letters to all state and territorial governors and to the mayor of Washington.
Fueled by GOP votes – and unusually strong Democratic support – the House on Thursday set what may be an impossibly high bar to admit Syrian and Iraqi refugees, while the more pressing security problems are lax visa standards.
The bill, which would create the strictest-ever United States screening of refugees from a war-torn nation, passed with the two-thirds majority the House would need to override a presidential veto.
NPR reports however the Syrian government does not cooperate with the United States, and that makes it hard to verify some documents.
On Fox News on Friday morning, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) repeated the erroneous claim that a Syrian refugee was involved in the Paris attack.
The bill’s supporters said the legislation would help ensure that Islamic State terrorists will not slip into the USA along with refugees. That includes, according to the White House, multiple inquiries from the National Counterterrorism Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Defense.
Elise Labott, CNN’s global affairs correspondent, has been suspended for two weeks after tweeting a CNN story about the bill with the words: “Statue of Liberty bows head in anguish”.
But the Obama administration says refugees still provide an extensive amount of information during the process, and said the bill would mean “unnecessary and impractical requirements that would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world”. “Next question?” he responded after being asked about a potential veto.
Obama has been criticized for his tone, and the White House has since explained how it vets refugees on television interviews and in a flood of posts on Twitter and Facebook.
“Short of that, even if today’s bill were to pass the Congress and be signed into law, the President would still retain the power to let in whoever, and however many, refugees he pleases”, Jones said. But governors can limit resources directed toward a variety of relocation services offered to refugees and others through the states.
President Obama gave a speech expressing solidarity with France in the wake of the Paris attacks.
So it’s no surprise polls show that Americans strongly oppose Obama’s plans to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country. “Then we’ll go forward with the compassionate resettlement program in a way that meets our security needs”.
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He added: “The idea that somehow they pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jibe with reality”.
