USA administration defends Syria refugee programme

There is now no credible threat against the state, the governor’s office said, and no Syrian refugees have been relocated to Alabama so far.

“The only way to fight this darkness is by offering these refugees the love and light of Jesus Christ”, said Stephan Bauman, the head of World Relief.

“They are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America”.

The administration showed no sign of backing off its plans to bring an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees to the USA and mounted a hasty defense of its vetting process, which Attorney General Loretta Lynch assured Congress is “robust”.

“We must find a way to balance our tradition as a state welcoming of refugees while ensuring the safety and security of our citizens”, he said in a statement.

He said he was in contact with Ryan and the White House on how to proceed.

Sam Brownback joined 30 other states this week in announcing the state will not be accepting refugees from Syria until certain conditions are met.

He demanded to know more about the people being placed in Louisiana to avoid a repeat of the Paris attacks and wanted to know if screening would be intensified for refugees holding Syrian passports.

On Sunday, investigators said that one of the Paris bombers carried Syrian identification papers – possibly forged – and the fear of Syrian refugees grew worse. Ahead of a classified briefing Tuesday evening for lawmakers he assembled a task force of committee chairmen to bring refugee legislation to the floor as soon as this week.

McConnell echoed that call, remarking, “It’s pretty clear how the American people feel about this”.

Governors in 30 states across the country have now publicly asked for the resettlement of Syrian refugees to stop until security concerns can be addressed.

“Filling your country up with people who have a completely different belief system… and expecting they won’t rise up against their benefactor is foolish”, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a leading immigration hardliner, said in an interview.

Obama took particular ire at a proposal by GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush to admit only Christian Syrians.

The U.S. State Department is responsible for the refugee program, and work with volunteer organizations to help immigrants adjust to their new communities. That includes one Democratic governor, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan, while seven other Democrats are giving the green light to resettlement.

Syrian refugees wait on the Syrian side of the border near Sanliurfa, Turkey, June 10. He said that refugees “don’t normally come with embedded terrorists in their midst, and that’s the challenge”.

Texas has taken in more than 210 refugees from war-torn Syria in the last 14 months, state officials have said.

“We need to ensure that we’re properly vetting these refugees”, said House Republican Richard Hudson, an early architect of the legislation.

“It’s not that we don’t want to – it’s that we can’t”, Florida Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. For every minute we stall, a Syrian child remains a victim of terrorism instead of the beneficiary of American ideals.

Obama argued that the USA doesn’t make good decisions “based on hysteria” or exaggerated risk. “We are not well served when in response to a terrorist attack we descend into fear and panic”, he said.

US map and state response to Syrian refugees The column, by Michael Hill, CRS senior writer, noted: “Since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, it’s estimated that more than 250,000 people have died”. Five families are in Fort Worth and a single man lives in Arlington. The overall pool is nearly evenly split between males and females.

More than half of USA governors have objected to plans to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States, with a few declaring that they will not allow resettlement in their states after the deadly attacks in Paris.

The current acceptance rate for Syrians is around 50 percent. The others include denials and cases pending further investigation.