In a 289-137 vote largely along party lines, the House of Representatives today voted to block the admittance of Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States. The bill places hugely onerous restrictions on the admittance of such refugees, which is meant to effectively halt the entire process.
Under the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, every single Iraqi or Syrian refugee who wants to be admitted will need a certification from the FBI Director on their background check, as well as three different certifications from the FBI Director, the Homeland Security Secretary, and the Director of National Intelligence that the individual refugee is “not a threat.”
While in theory this means refugees could still come, in practice it will grind the entire process to a halt, and this appears to be by design, ensuring that no refugees at all are being admitted from either Iraq or Syria as well as anyone who’s even been to Iraq or Syria in the last four years.
Since Friday’s attacks in Paris, there has been a growing backlash against refugees, particularly among US Republicans. This was based largely on rumors, which turned out to be false, of a refugee being among the attacks. Germany’s Interior Minister said he believes a refugee passport was planted at one of the sites as a “false flag” by ISIS to make things harder for the refugees, and by all indications this is working.
The obvious solution to end the Syrian refugee crisis is to stop funding the Syrian insurgents attempting to over throw Assad. But that is not Obama's plan. The U.S. policy supported by the West is to remove Assad evidently at any cost. The U.S. corporate media refuses to even mention the Syrian civil war and the deep involvement of the U.S. in starting the war and efforts to continue stoking the war arming rebels covertly with the most advanced weaponry.
Your point is excellent! Many of these same people screaming at the top of their lungs about how these refugees need to be properly vetted callously brushed aside concerns about how to properly vet so-called "moderate rebels" last year when they voted to provide lethal weaponry to anti-government terrorists in Syria. And now even the Obama administration has admitted that plan failed.
Such people cannot be listened to. John McCain, a big proponent of funding terrorism in Syria, to his credit is at least being more reasonable on the issue of refugees than most of his GOP colleagues.
According to reports, all eight of the Paris attackers held valid European passports, and the ASAFE Act would not have stopped any of them entering the US.
The most criminal nation in the world is pretending that somehow
1. People arriving desperate in the USA from lands the USA has destroyed are more dangerous than those already walking the streets of the USA
2. Terrorism by Muslims is really a big threat to the USA. More people are killed by police and by toddlers in the USA than anyone in Western nations is by "terrorists".
You're right but… killed by toddlers?
Fear and bigotry win out. Way to go Congress. What a bunch of tools – and fools.
Immediately shows the actual level of commitment to "the freedoms".
Europe, you are alone in this. Wanna rethink Ukraine yet?
I'll sign a bill to exclude Repugs from creating anymore bills.
What was the reactions to the Korean and the Vietnamese refugees ?They too became refugees because of the USA behavior.Were they feared to be communists disguised as refugees?the Cubans too?