Refugees have become a top political concern after Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris in attacks last week.
Advertisement
The vice president then said he was going to “set the record straight”.
More importantly, we can’t lose sight of the bigger picture here: The refugee crisis is a effect of the President’s failed policy in the Middle East. It is a symptom of the disease. It is not clear that the governors may legally do this.
Karas said the refugees are headed to countries in northern Europe. “Yes, governments need to bring order to refugee processing and weed out militant extremists, but now more than ever they also need to stand with people uprooted from their homes by ideologies of hatred and help them find real protection”.
Clearly, our nation and state are divided.
Since the civil war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, 2,370 Syrian refugees from that country have arrived in the U.S. Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama has signed an Executive Order that would direct state agencies not to participate in any resettlement activities for Syrian refugees.
So how are we protected?
Pence has praised legislation the House passed Thursday that would add additional steps to the screening process, including having the director of national intelligence and the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security personally certify that each applicant from Iraq and Syria is not a security threat.
“American power, in theory, would allow the United States to hit much harder”, another unnamed French official told Reuters. That includes lengthy interviews conducted by specially trained staff. None can be waived, as in a few countries. The vetting process takes an average of 18-24 months. “This is the face of people around the world who still look to the United States as a beacon of hope”.
The Chaldeans are trying to join the thriving Iraqi Christian community in and around San Diego, California, but now they face an uncertain future as their applications for religious asylum have been rejected by US authorities allegedly due to “technicalities”.
There are lengthy face-to-face interviews, security checks and health screenings. Then after a three-day cultural orientation class, the worldwide Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental group, arranges travel.
In a constituent email sent Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo agreed that the federal government should be screening refugees “exhaustively”.
In all, the vetting process can take as long as two years – a far cry from showing up at Ellis Island on a boat. American officials have called the Syrian refugees the most scrutinized group entering the country today. I introduced the bill immediately last Monday because of reports that at least one of the terrorists in Paris entered Europe as a Syrian refugee.
States such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are now refusing to accept Syrian refugees for resettlement.
Advertisement
But Lavinia Limon, president and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigration, has the Associated Press that under the Refugee Act of 1980, governors can not legally block refugees. “We were there once upon a time”.
