Defending his administration’s screening program, Obama said it takes 18 to 24 months to clear a refugee for entry, following vetting by the US intelligence community and other agencies as well as biometrics.
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Obama and administration officials have lambasted Republicans, saying they are equating refugees with terrorists. They are then each individually interviewed by USA officials trained to verify that they’re bona fide refugees.
Jay Inslee Tuesday reiterated that Washington state should welcome Syrian refugees, a group applied for a permit to rally at the Capitol to oppose accepting them.
On Monday, the State Department said it would not change its plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next year.
President Barack Obama would veto a Republican bill introduced in the wake of the Paris attacks to toughen the screening process for Syrian refugees, the White House said Wednesday.
Speaking while on a trip in the Philippines, Mr Obama said that this kind of rhetoric played into the hands of Islamic State and said “it needs to stop”. Kasich told the National Press Club today that states don’t have the authority to block refugee resettlement in the U.S., but he wants the feds to halt it until a system of checking out their backgrounds is better established.
“We will make all efforts to ensure that Syrian refugees are not resettled within the boundaries of our state”, wrote Walker in a letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
“One of the Paris ISIS terrorists entered France posing as a Syrian refugee”, the narrator intones.
The Republicans continue to pursue their offensive against the acceptance of Syrian refugees in the United States because reports are that one of the terrorists implicated in the Paris attacks entered Europe as part of the wave of Syrians fleeing from the internal conflict in their homeland.
The Chicago organization Refugee One says the governor’s office has asked for information about future arrivals of Syrian refugees.
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The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Michael McCaul, said his bill would strengthen security measures for all refugee populations. Dan Sullivan, who says he’s received calls from hundreds of Alaskans concerned about the vetting process and risk of terrorism. Immediately upon being admitted to the U.S.as a refugee, the refugees are authorized and expected to work. “We will not close the door in the face of people seeking safety no matter what Gov. Rauner says”.
