GOP aims to block Syrian refugee plan
Texans lead revolt in Congress as Ryan urges ‘pause’ in resettlement
WASHINGTON — While Texas and twodozen other states seek to bar Syrian immigrants in the wake of the Paris terror attacks, the real battle is shifting to Congress, where Republicans are threatening to block a White House plan to relocate 10,000 Syrian war refugees in the coming year.
The Republican revolt — with a group of Texans in the lead — presents a potential new obstacle for a bipartisan 2016 spending bill to keep the government running after Dec. 11, particularly as opposition to the resettlement plan sweeps across the GOP presidential field.
While state officials like Gov. Greg Abbott have little power to influence federal immigration and resettlement policies, Republican leaders in Congress are being urged to use the power of the purse to kill President Barack Obama’s refugee plan.
The coming showdown escalated Tuesday as House Speaker Paul Ryan called for a “pause” in Syrian resettlement in the U.S. while Congress develops a new plan to address the Syrian refugee crisis.
“Our nation has always been welcoming, but we cannot let terrorists take advantage of our compassion,” Ryan said. “This is a moment when it is better to be safe than sorry.”
Ryan’s statement was echoed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.
“I’m proud of our history of opening our doors to innocent people fleeing violence for religious persecution. That’s part of who we are as a country,” Cornyn said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “But following Friday’s attack, we should pause our Syrian refugee program until we can be sure that the individuals are being fully vetted for potential terror ties, so we can ensure the public safety of all Americans.”
Religious test for entry?
Both statements came as lawmakers awaited Tuesday’s classified briefing by the FBI and other national security officials on the Paris attacks that took the lives of 129 people.
They also came as several Republicans seeking the presidency, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, floated plans to bar Syrian Muslim refugees — but not Christians — from entering the United States.
“President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s idea that we should bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America, it is nothing less than lunacy,” Cruz said in a weekend interview on Fox News.
But Cruz, whose campaign is banking heavily on support from white evangelical voters in Iowa and the South, said Christian refugees are a different matter. “Christians who are being targeted for genocide, for persecution, Christians who are being beheaded or crucified, we should be providing safe haven to them,” Cruz said.
Speaking at a G-20 Summit meeting in Turkey, Obama called the idea un-American.
“When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a wartorn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefitted from protection when they were fleeing political persecution — that’s shameful,” Obama said. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
A host of foreign policy analysts also have warned that discriminating against Muslim refugees would damage America’s standing in the Middle East and possibly hamper U.S. efforts to recruit Arab and Muslim allies in the fight against Islamic State terrorists.
But the effort to put Obama’s entire refugee project on hold has gained significant traction in Congress in recent days, led by several Texans in key positions to influence the pending year-end spending bill.
A bill introduced by Texas U.S. Rep. Brian Babin at the start of the Syrian refugee crisis in July would yank 2016 funding for the president’s resettlement plan, an issue that could prove to be a major flash point of the 2016 presidential election.
For Babin, a freshman lawmaker from Woodville, the Paris terror attacks were all the warning that’s needed to vindicate the concerns of many conservatives that the Syrian refugee program could represent a national security risk.
“The terrorist attack in Paris by militant Islamists is a loud clanging alarm bell to Congress and the American people warning us why we must block Obama’s reckless and foolish plan to allow tens of thousands of Syrian refugees into the U.S.,” Babin said.
Babin wrote a letter to Ryan on Monday asking that his provision be included in the current talks for the year-end spending bill, creating a new sticking point in negotiations already weighted down by partisan differences over taxes and funding for Planned Parenthood.
Lone Star backing
Signing on to Babin’s letter so far are 11 Texas Republicans, including Houston-area U.S. Reps. Kevin Brady, Pete Olson and Randy Weber. Also signing on is Austin Republican Michael McCaul, the influential chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.
McCaul introduced a separate bill in September that would require congressional approval before any Syrian refugees are admitted to the U.S. In a letter to Obama on Monday, McCaul pushed back against administration assurances that the refugees are being thoroughly screened before being admitted to the U.S.
Citing the testimony of a number of U.S. security officials before Congress, McCaul said “we lack the on-the-ground intelligence necessary to thoroughly vet Syrian refugees seeking to resettle here.”
Cruz and Alabama U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions also criticized the administration Tuesday for withholding immigration details on 72 immigrants “identified as having a connection to terrorism over the last oneyear period.” At the same time, Humble Republican Ted Poe, who chairs a House subcommittee on terrorism, unveiled a bill giving governors the right to opt out of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program.
The United States accepted some 1,700 Syrians fleeing the civil war in the past year. About 90 of them settled last year in Houston, one of the top locations for refugee resettlement in the nation.
Those numbers are expected to grow as a European refugee crisis worsens and the Obama administration remains committed to increasing its overall refugee intake from about 70,000 to 100,000 a year by 2017.
Some Democrats have called for increasing resettlement for refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria, as long as they’re properly vetted. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has called for the U.S. to accept as many as 65,000 more Syrians.
While several of the Paris attackers who have been identified so far had French or Belgian passports, at least one of the terrorists is believed to have been a Syrian refugee traveling through Greece.
U.S. on edge
Immigrant advocates, however, say the lengthy U.S. screening process cannot be compared to the chaotic flow of refugees from Syria and North Africa that have overwhelmed European officials.
“We should not be controlled by fear,” said Houston’s U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. “The United States is well-placed with intelligence, law enforcement and a vetting process that can carefully screen, and has carefully screened … the Syrian refugees that have come into this country.”
While the idea of America as a haven for the world’s huddled masses has long been an article of faith in both parties, the Paris attacks have created a new edginess, sending shock waves through the nation’s immigrant communities.
“Our proud history makes even more disheartening the current partisan declarations about shutting the door on vulnerable Syrian families fleeing violence,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Those asserting that refugees are not welcome — either because of their country of origin or their faith — are acting out of small-minded panic and nativism.”
But those urging a freeze on U.S. resettlement efforts say the Friday the 13th attacks were a gamechanger.
“We cannot allow Syrian refugees in the United States in the current dangerous environment,” said Fort Worth Republican Kay Granger, who chairs a House oversight committee on refugee resettlement funding.
Granger now wants to see the U.S. focus on refugee camps in the Middle East. “We have provided significant assistance to the refugees and nations in the region to address the crisis, and that should continue to be our response.”