President Obama called them un-American, but opponents rallied Monday to resist his plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. this year and enlisted the help of some two dozen governors — Democrats and Republicans — who signaled that they would try to resist having refugees sent to their states.
On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said he has heard the objections and is looking for ways to slow down the president’s plans. He even suggested attaching restrictions to the year-end spending bill, daring the president into a veto showdown over refugees.
Refugee advocacy groups fought back, saying the U.S. risks losing its role as a world humanitarian leader if it turns its back on the plight of the millions of Syrians who have fled civil war. They said the U.S., which can screen refugees — a process that can take more than two years — faces less risk from Syrian refugees than Europe, where hundreds of thousands have shown up on shores without any vetting.
“The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism. They are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference in Turkey after concluding the Group of 20 summit, where the terrorist attacks in France last week dominated the agenda. “They are parents, they are children, they are orphans.”
The president has ordered his administration to resettle 10,000 refugees in fiscal year 2016, which began Oct. 1, and an increase is planned for 2017. The process is already well underway, with State Department officers having prescreened more than 10,000 potential refugees as of September and some of those having cleared their Homeland Security interviews.
Homeland Security officials insist they will be able to weed out would-be terrorists, but by late Monday some two dozen governors had said they don’t believe those assurances and are seeking to delay or halt the refugees.
SEE ALSO: John Brennan, CIA chief, issues comments on ISIS harsher than Obama’s
“In the end, I don’t trust this administration to effectively vet the people that they’re asking us to take in. We need to put the safety and security of the American people first,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate, told radio show host Hugh Hewitt.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, joined the chorus of governors expressing concern that the vetting isn’t strong enough. She has announced a challenge to Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte in next year’s elections, and her concern over the refugees suggests which way the political wind is blowing.
The governors are likely to get some backup from Capitol Hill, where a number of lawmakers are pondering legislation to rein in Mr. Obama’s plans. Options include a flat-out ban on Syrian refugees, a less-drastic plan to require Homeland Security officials to certify the validity of their background checks before accepting any refugees, and giving governors veto power over having refugees sent to their states.
The law allows governors to demand that they be notified when refugees are to be placed in their states, but the governors do not have the ability to reject them.
Mr. Obama, rattled by prodding questions at a press conference Monday about whether his strategy for tackling the Islamic State had failed, lashed out at his critics over refugees. He specifically targeted several Republican presidential candidates who have said the U.S. should prioritize Christian refugees, who are fleeing religious persecution and who are less likely to be terrorist recruits.
The president said there will be no religious test. “That’s shameful. That’s not American,” he said.
SEE ALSO: Obama says he’s ‘too busy’ to debate GOP over terrorism
Hoping to stem the rising tide against the administration’s plans, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James B. Comey will give a classified briefing for House lawmakers Tuesday afternoon, at Mr. Ryan’s request.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been raising concerns over Syrian refugees for months, well before the Paris attacks. One of the suicide bombers at the stadium is believed to have entered the European Union posing as a refugee. He arrived in Greece in early October with fake Syrian papers and a false name, and was admitted and traveled throughout Europe before arriving in Paris.
Republican lawmakers have said the U.S. could be vulnerable to similar fraud because American officials have acknowledged that they don’t have access to databases or on-the-ground resources in Syria that would help them check the backgrounds of refugees. That contrasts with Iraq, where the U.S., because it had a strong presence on the ground, was able to verify the backgrounds of refugee applicants.
Refugee defenders said the U.S. system is solid. Refugees are required to undergo an in-person interview, checks of available databases and a medical exam, including a tuberculosis test. The FBI, State Department, Homeland Security Department and intelligence agencies all have roles in the background checks.
The process is stiffer than in many other countries, and the time from referral to approval can take two years. Indeed, the U.S. faces criticism from advocacy groups for the high bars it imposes.
Unlike Europe, where the refugees are washing up on the shore and are already present, they cannot be admitted into the U.S. unless they have been cleared to travel.
John Sandweg, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Mr. Obama, also pushed back against fears that the U.S. can’t check backgrounds.
“The U.S. has a lot of data — biographical and biometric — that can be run against individuals,” he told The Washington Times. “I’ve heard people say, ’Well, how do we do background checks?’ The U.S. has the ability to do background checks.”
Mr. Sandweg, who is now a consultant after serving for five months as acting head of the internal immigration enforcement agency, said refugees the U.S. would resettle have already been deemed good candidates by the U.N. refugee agency. They are checked by multiple agencies, and any information gleaned from their interviews is also examined.
They are screened one last time by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer upon their arrival.
About 180 communities around the U.S. have refugee resettlement programs in place — though notably those do not include big cities such as Washington, D.C., where the cost of living is deemed too high for the refugees.
Several Democratic governors have rallied around Mr. Obama’s plans, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who said his state will accept refugees.
In Virginia, state Sen. Dick Black asked Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe to announce his opposition to resettling refugees in the state and to refuse to assist any efforts the federal government does make.
Mr. McAuliffe’s spokesman, however, signaled that the governor won’t be joining the protests. Spokesman Brian Coy said Mr. McAuliffe has instead stepped up communications with the Obama administration to ensure any refugees sent to Virginia have been through the proper screening.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.