Obama to veto bill halting Syrian refugees’ U.S. admission

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled that country to escape the ongoing civil war there. European authorities have been overwhelmed by the mass migration.

Upon arrival in the United States, each refugee is eligible for a $1,975 arrival and placement grant that is managed by one of nine refugee resettlement agencies working with the federal government. Syrian refugees have taken significantly longer to process because of security concerns and the fact that the US doesn’t have a diplomatic presence in the country, making it more complicated for officials to gather information about applicants. A few said they were anxious that Islamic extremists may try to take advantage of the USA refugee process. The USA will accept 85,000 people in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017.

The Obama administration, which has announced plans to accept about 10,000 Syrians refugees in addition to the 2,500 who have settled here since 2011, disclosed new details this week about how they are investigated. Syrians are less of a threat, actually, because they’ve fled their country.

“When candidates say we shouldn’t admit 3-year old-orphans, that’s political posturing”, said Obama. The overall group is nearly evenly split among men and women.

Republican leaders introduced legislation requiring assurances of more robust background checks and vetting.

The Homeland Security Department says refugees face the highest level of security screening of anybody entering the United States, and it will work to allay states’ concerns. He added that no refugees should be permitted into the US from Syria “unless they be Christian refugees that are facing genocide”.

The federal agencies run the refugees’ names, fingerprints and birthdates through databases. They’re the kind of people who foster orphans, feed the homeless, and love their neighbors because they’re called to but also because it’s just the right thing to do. For those who do not want the refugees here, questions about the vetting process are front and center.

The bill was being debated less than a week after a burst of bombings and shootings killed 129 people in Paris, wounded many more and revived post-9/11 jitters in the US and other countries.

“This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry”, he said. “That’s the challenge we are all talking about, is that we can only query against that which we have collected. And so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home but… there will be nothing show up because we have no record on that person”, Comey said.

“It is against the values of our nation and the values of a free society to give terrorists the opening they are looking for”, said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

While the world debates taking in Syrian refugees, many are in need of both help and supplies, an aid worker said Wednesday. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacres. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told lawmakers this week that roughly 70 people have been charged with crimes related to foreign-fighter activity and homegrown violent extremism since 2013. The proposed legislation, which could be voted on as early as Thursday, would halt refugee processing while the new protocol is established.

Officials emphasized that screening for Syrian refugees is the most rigorous for any set of travelers wishing to enter the United States, including an interview overseas, biometrics, fingerprinting and biographical investigations to determine if individuals are truly worthy of refugee status or if they pose security risks.

But Javier Gonzales, mayor of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, called on Martinez to welcome Syrian refugees to the state. They’ve chosen America because they know that most of us are the descendants of immigrants and refugees ourselves, and they believe they will be met with the same compassion our ancestors found when they arrived from Italy, Ireland, China, Vietnam, and Cuba.