The Obama administration is assuring the nation’s governors that refugees who come to the USA undergo a “rigorous security vetting process”, particularly if they are fleeing from Syria. Before Thursday’s House vote, the White House sent chief of staff Denis McDonough and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to the Capitol to try winning over Democrats.
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On the night of the Paris assault, ultra-conservative Republican White House hopeful Senator Ted Cruz started calling for closing America’s doors to Syrian refugees in order to prevent any infiltration by Islamic State extremists.
Representatives – both Republican and Democrat – defied the veto threat announced by President Barack Obama, suspending the administration’s program that planned to admit 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in 2016, by intensifying the process of screening them – a process that already takes up to 24 months.
“Being generous does not mean we have to have a weak process for screening refugees”, number two House Republican Kevin McCarthy told the chamber shortly before the bill’s passage.
American opposition to taking in Syrian refugees is not just at the state level.
The bill, which you can read here, passed the House by a vote of 289-137 and will now go to the Senate. Democrats are urging their Republican colleagues not to risk a government shutdown by tying the funding bill to the refugee issue.
In light of the central role French and Belgian jihadists played in the attacks, USA lawmakers want to limit the decades-old program that allows visa-free travel to the United States for citizens of 38 countries, which they warn could be abused by extremists in Europe.
The bill aims to ensure that comprehensive background checks are conducted on every individual seeking refuge in the United States, The legislation will require the FBI director to certify each background investigation. Scores of Republicans also object to the bill in its current form, saying it ignores key problems. “Next question?” he responded after being asked about a potential veto. “It sets up roadblocks to keep terrorists from entering the United States while also allowing legitimate refugees who are not a threat to be resettled appropriately”, McCaul said.
The refugee debate in the U.S.. But governors can limit resources directed toward a variety of relocation services offered to refugees and others through the states. “The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have Americans understandably concerned”.
Democrats in the Senate could block the bill, and Obama has said if it passes he will veto it.
“We are not well served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic”, Obama said in the Philippines on Wednesday. “Until we do and properly secure our methods, the refugee program should be suspended”.
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The US Department of Homeland Security said members of two Syrian families – two men, two women and four children – turned themselves in to US authorities in Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border.
