“We had very robust vetting procedures for those refugees”, Rhodes said.
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The Chairman of the House Homeland Security committee Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Monday calling on him to temporarily stop Syrian refugees from coming into the United States.
“I disagree”, he said. “I’ve been briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security. They tell me that this can not be done”.
“We don’t have the databases”, he said.
“Paris changes everything”, McCaul said.
“There are a lot of holes – gaping holes”, he said. Among the report’s findings: Security gaps in foreign countries – especially in Europe – make it easier for jihadists to travel back-and-forth from terrorist hotspots and the West. McCaul called for European countries to re-evaluate their open borders travel policies.
McCaul predicted Friday’s coordinated attacks in Paris, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, will bring the Arab nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation coalition nations together.
McCaul’s letter follows last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris that killed more than 129 people there.
“We’ve arrested over 70 ISIS followers in the United States over the previous year”, the Texas Republican told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” program.
Fellow GOP challenger Sen.
“You have proposed resettling at least 10,000 Syrian refugees – now residing outside the Syria conflict zone in refugee camps – to the United States this fiscal year, in addition to more than 1,800 already resettled since 2011”, he added.
“The problem is not the background checks”, the Florida lawmaker said on ABC’s “This Week”.
“We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled” to Iraq and Syria, he added.
Reports have since emerged suggesting at least one of the extremists may have entered France by pretending he was a Syrian refugee.
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The USA now has nine such centers around the world, which are run by the State Department and staffed by Homeland Security Department workers.
