WASHINGTON – With Republicans trying to block the entry of Syrian refugees to the U.S., the Obama administration moved swiftly to offer assurances that it could weed out potential terrorist infiltrators.
After revelations that one of the Islamic State extremists who staged attacks in Paris last week may have entered Europe posing as a Syrian refugee, Republican officials and politicians are pushing to halt President Barack Obama’s plan to let as many as 10,000 people displaced by the conflict there resettle in the U.S.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called for a “pause” in Obama’s plans.
“This is a moment where it is better to be safe than sorry,” Ryan of Wisconsin told reporters in Washington on Tuesday. The government needs “to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population.”
The administration is fighting back with a multi-day blitz of briefings and calls with the media, lawmakers and governors and mayors from across the country who have questions about the refugee screening process.
In a conference call Tuesday, officials said a person entering the United States as a refugee is subjected to a more thorough evaluation than anyone immigrating into the country, in a process that averages nearly two years in length. One official, who like the others briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said misinformation spread via the Internet was fueling unwarranted skepticism on Capitol Hill and governor’s mansions across the country.
Administration officials also plan to meet with members of Congress over the next three days to discuss how the refugee process works. Those working on the refugee issue say that while the program has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, last week’s attack in Paris has intensified interest from lawmakers just learning about the program for the first time.
The refugee issue is overlapping with the debate about how to combat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
“Containing ISIS is not enough,” Ryan said, using an acronym for the group. “Defeating ISIS is what is necessary, and we do not have that comprehensive plan in place.” He said the U.S. shouldn’t rule out using ground troops, adding that the administration should “consider everything that accomplishes the goal of defeating ISIS.”
A task force of House Republican committee chairmen is working on legislative proposals and may reach conclusions as early as this week, Ryan said. He said Congress doesn’t need to pass legislation authorizing the use of military force against Islamic State because a previous authorization is still in force.
Scrutiny of Syrian refugees has intensified after authorities investigating the Paris attack found a Syrian passport near the body of one of the instigators. French officials say the passport was fake, but that the man entered Europe via the Aegean island of Leros by using the forged document to pose as a refugee.
Obama lashed out at those seeking to block the refugee resettlements or giving preference to Christians to the exclusion of Muslims, as Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, have suggested. Bush said Tuesday he wouldn’t ban Syrian refugees from entering the United States and said protecting religious minorities such as Christians doesn’t discriminate against other refugees
“It is very important for us right now, particularly those who are in leadership, particularly those who have a platform and can be heard, not to fall into that trap, not to feed that dark impulse inside of us,” Obama said at a news conference Monday in Antalya, Turkey.
By Tuesday, more than half the nation’s governors had said they did not want refugees admitted to their state. John Kasich, the Ohio governor seeking the GOP presidential nomination, and Bobby Jindal, the Republican presidential candidate who leads Louisiana, were among 27 governors – 26 of whom are Republicans – rejecting refugees.
The administration officials said Tuesday that governors can’t actually block refugees from entering their states. But local governments do play an consultative role, and state governments sometimes provide important benefits to those resettling in the U.S.
The administration’s work is, however, dependent on federal funding.
Republicans Tim Walberg of Michigan and Mark Walker of North Carolina said language to block the entry of Syrian refugees could be added to a federal spending bill that Congress needs to pass by Dec. 11 to keep the government operating.
Obama has said he wants the U.S. to admit at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The U.S. is already selective, usually considering for resettlement only refugees deemed “vulnerable,” such as widows, unaccompanied children or political enemies of the Bashar Assad regime. Candidates are interviewed in-person at refugee camps bordering Syria and the vetting requires nearly two years on average.
“Those who are calling for a complete ban first need to make sure they understand how thorough our existing vetting process is, and if we then can come to some bipartisan proposals for how to strengthen that, I’d welcome that,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in an interview at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday.
House members are scheduled to receive a classified briefing on the Paris attacks, Islamic State and Syrian refugees later Tuesday from administration officials including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and FBI Director James Comey. A briefing for senators by government officials is planned for Wednesday, said second- ranking Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged “challenges” facing the federal government in properly screening refugees from Syria amid a war there.
She said the administration has nevertheless established a “robust screening process” to thoroughly vet refugees. She said that the U.S. vetting was stronger than what European countries have managed to establish as they are facing a tide of refugees arriving at their borders by boat and over land.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the Judiciary committee, said he was skeptical that that the government could weed out potential terrorists hiding among the refugees. He pointed to earlier testimony from Comey who raised his own concerns about keeping out terrorists.
Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, said that with Syria wracked by a civil war, confirming facts about the backgrounds of refugees could be difficult. “We’ll be vulnerable too when it comes to people from Syria when we can’t get access to those databases because the country is in disarray and we can’t even gather information fresh, new because we can’t access the people that we could talk to,” he said.
Walberg said the task force of committee chairmen, as described by Ryan in a closed-door meeting with House Republicans, is a way to “to develop a plan as quickly as possible” on legislation to address the security concerns about the refugee program, “but also in a way that is as compassionate as possible.”
The U.S. has resettled about 2,000 Syrian refugees, a fraction of the 4 million Syrian refugees worldwide who have registered with the United Nations since 2012. Of those in the U.S., Texas has received the most, followed by California, Michigan, Illinois and Arizona, according to State Department data.
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