President Obama pledges to keep United States borders open to refugees

Christie keeps up his criticism of President Obama over Syrian refugees, Secretary of State John Kerry responded to Christie’s letter saying New Jersey wouldn’t accept Syrian refugees.

And to address the specific terrorism concerns we are talking about now, we’ve instituted another layer of checks just for Syrian refugees. Since September 11, 2001, the United States has accepted 745,000 refugees, with only two of those subsequently being arrested on terrorist charges.

Bentley’s office did not return a request for comment Monday.

After last week’s attacks in Paris by the Islamic State, several governors vowed to block efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S. for fear their ranks would be infiltrated by IS militants planning a domestic attack.

Meanwhile, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is yet to indicate his state’s position when it comes to the resettlement. Joseph A. Griffo said the states should still have their voices heard, and he’s calling for a moratorium on the admission of refugees from “specified regions”.

-A determination of an appropriate resettlement site in the USA by the State Department and the Health and Human Services Department.

Just under 2,200 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the USA since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. The men involved in the Paris attacks were French or Belgian nationals; at least one held a Syrian passport, though its authenticity is uncertain.

Biden’s statements are consistent with President Barack Obama’s insistence this week that the United States can not afford to abandon its value of religious non-discrimination in the face of sustained attacks by Republicans and a few Democrats who have advocated ending the administration’s resettlement program, only admitting Christian refugees or putting them in internment camps similar to those used for residents of Japanese descent during World War II.

Potential USA refugees are then referred, with a packet of information, to the State Department.

“We want to emphasize that no one has a right to be resettled in the United States as a refugee”, the letter read.

-A biographic check conducted by the State Department that includes checking the applicant against names in the various law enforcement and intelligence databases and watch lists. First they are finger printed, then they undergo a thorough background check, then they are interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. “With every refugee application, the burden of proof is on the applicant – the refugee must show that he or she qualifies for refugee status”. As we noted in a previous fact-check, Turkey shelters the greatest number of refugees within its borders (1.6 million), with Pakistan and Lebanon not too far behind. Instead, he said the USA should help settle Syrian refugees in the Middle East.

“My view on this is really simple, which is, this is not a debate about whether or not MA or the United States should continue to be a welcoming and opening community for people who are fleeing terror – all sorts of other really terrible things”.

If the European host countries don’t know who these fighters are it’s nearly impossible for the United States to know who they are. The letter from Kerry and Johnson noted Canada plans to accept 25,000 refugees.

“The refugee vetting process is an ongoing one”, he said. “We might as well take down the Statue of Liberty”, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

“We call it warehousing”, said Limón. “The notion that somehow we would be fearful of them, that our politics would somehow lead us to turn our sights away from their plight, is not representative of the best of who we are”.