Some Congressional Republicans on Monday responded to Friday’s Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist attacks in Paris by taking aim at the Obama administration’s plans to admit refugees fleeing the brutal ongoing civil war in Syria.
Describing the sanctuary proposals as a threat to Americans, House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate judiciary immigration subcommittee chair Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)–both prior critics of the plans–called on the White House to but the brakes on its humanitarian initiative.
“When will President Obama take [ISIL] threats seriously, as well as the warnings of national security officials within his own administration, and cease his plan to bring thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States?” Goodlatte said in a written statement.
Sessions’ office touted legislation he has written “for cancelling the blank check for refugee resettlement in the upcoming government funding bill.” It claimed the president’s plan “would allow for an unlimited amount of money to be spent on lifetime welfare and benefits for refugees–without a penny of offsets.”
Sessions is proposing, instead, to hold four votes on the sanctuary issue, including a separate motion on the release of funding required to carry out the plan–an additional opportunity for its opponents to undermine it.
Not all Republican lawmakers responded to ISIL’s Parisian massacres with direct criticism of the President’s refugee resettlement calls, and many Republican Senators, in statements addressing the killings, did not mention the asylum issue at all. Some offered relatively measured criticism, without directly attacking sanctuary proposals.
“We must secure our borders and fully screen those who want to enter our country,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) (he released an additional statement on Monday, which is included in updates below).
“While this violence reminds us of why millions of people are fleeing regions terrorized by Islamic extremists, there can be no shortcuts when it comes to guaranteeing the safety of the American people,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said. “Any proposed change in US policy by this administration must involve a careful assessment of all the implications and ensure that there is no added security risk.”
Outside of Washington, right-wing opposition to the proposal has gained sharp momentum since Friday. Republican governors from Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Michigan, Arkansas, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arizona, and Alabama have said they will not accept Syrian refugees.
The declarations might be unconstitutional, however. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that much of Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law, SB1070, did not withstand judicial review because the federal government “has significant power to regulate immigration,” in the words of Reagan-appointee, Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The Obama administration has proposed taking in at least 10,000 refugees from Syria this fiscal year. The US has admitted about 1,300 Syrian refugees since the current conflict there began in 2011.
There are almost 4.3 million Syrian refugees currently registered by the United Nations in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and North Africa. As of publication, about 400,000 had sought safety in Europe this year alone by crossing the Mediterranean, according to the UN. Since 2011, fighting in Syria is estimated to have killed 250,000 people.
The administrations plans for Syrian refugees also came under fire this weekend from Republican presidential candidates. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said on Sunday that “[t]here is no background check system in the world” that can permit immigration officials to verify all Syrians’ identities. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, said the US should give preferential treatment to Syrian Christians.
The President on Monday defended his proposals saying: “We do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.” He also called the discrimination-by-faith idea “shameful.”
“That’s not American. It’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” he said.
None of the seven attackers have thus far been positively identified as Syrian. According to The Guardian, four have been identified as having been born and raised in Belgium and France, and three are reported to be of Algerian descent. All four did reportedly travel to Syria, at one point, to fight for ISIL in the past few years.
UPDATE: Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called on Americans to not “turn our back on our history or on those fleeing to find a shred of safety,” but said that the administration and international partners must give “more information” on oversight and possible exploitation by ISIL.
Sen. Inhofe said there should be “a pause in accepting Syrians as refugees” until a review of the plan can take place.
Read an October Sentinel story on Sen. Sessions’ citing of an immigration statistic thrown around by far-right leaders in Europe here.
