The U.S. government rely on United Nations refugee camps and application processes to decide which refugees to accept. The majority of refugees considered for resettlement in the USA and in the UK are referred by the UNHCR.
Advertisement
“When I hear folks say that”, the president said, “when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when a few of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful”. It’s no exaggeration to call this un-American. “He talked about how he was belittling the Republicans as scared…”
A few Republicans, including presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, have said that only Syrian Christians should be eligible for asylum the U.S.
That’s how the Texas senator responded to President Obama’s criticism of Republicans over the United States’ Syrian refugee policy.
He doubled down on dividing Syrian Christians from Muslims at another stop later that day.
“I have been told by my law enforcement agency, by Homeland Security, that there have been a few major threats against the United States after 9/11, and all of those individuals came out of refugee programs”, said Alabama Governor Robert Bentley in an appearance on CNN this week. We have a noble tradition of accepting refugees, but in this particular case, given the circumstances, I think there ought to be thorough vetting.
Cruz is one of several presidential candidates in the days since the terrorist attacks in Paris to criticize and call for changes to US plans to bring in Syrian refugees. They’re wrong. They will lead, I think, to greater recruitment into terrorist organizations over time if this becomes somehow defined as a Muslim problem as opposed to a terrorist problem. “It’s been a noble tradition in our country for many years”.
“That was offensive. That was mean-spirited”, said one advocate with a Christian group that resettles refugees….”It’s easy to pick on vulnerable refugees who have no voice”.
Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday signed an order trying to get his state of Louisiana to block the settlement of any Syrian refugee, while Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, proposed we “wake up and smell the falafel” and said House Speaker Paul Ryan should resign if he can’t block the refugees’ arrival. I’m actually stating your position. “There’s a broader issue at stake here, and it is the fact that there’s a group of people that have declared war on Western civilization and on our country”, Bush said.
ABC News’ Jon Karl asked Cruz, the Republican presidential candidate, if he would bar Muslims but permit Christians to enter the U.S.
Advertisement
Critics of President Barack Obama’s plan to accept thousands of the refugees have been raising the possibility of the Islamic State infiltrating the refugee population and carrying out another attack in the US. “People of good conscience who want to protect Christians are not recruiting tools for ISIL”, Santorum said in a statement.
