US House Votes
to Restrict Iraqi and Syrian Refugees Entry
By BBC
November 19, 2015
"Information
Clearing House" - "BBC"
- The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that
tightens restrictions on the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi
refugees, amid security concerns.
Dozens of Democrats joined Republicans as the
House passed the measure 289-137, in a rebuke to the White House.
President Barack Obama has said he will veto the
legislation.
The bill follows the attacks in Paris that left
129 people dead, claiming to the be the work of Islamic State.
Seven of the perpetrators died in the attacks, and
one of them is thought to have been a Syrian who entered Europe via
Greece with migrants.
It still needs to pass the Senate before hitting
Mr Obama's desk.
The bill would require the head of the FBI, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the Director of National
Intelligence to sign off on each refugee as being "not a threat to
the security of the United States," following an FBI background
check.
"We are a compassionate nation," said
newly-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican. "But we also
must remember that our priority is to protect the American people."
Republicans do not have the votes to override Mr
Obama's veto, but say that their affirmative vote in symbolic.
The current vetting process
- takes two years
- in-person
interviews and supporting documents
- their
experience of conflict cross-checked against intelligence
- about 50% of
applicants approved
Step-by-step: how a Syrian refugee gets to the US
Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky who is
currently running for president, has highlighted a 2011 case in his
home state of two Iraqi refugees who schemed to send rifles,
missiles and money to al-Qaeda against US troops in Iraqi. They are
now imprisoned.
The White House has said that 2,174 Syrians have
been admitted to the US since the attacks in September 2001, and
noted that none of them has been arrested or deported for terror
offences.
Millions of Syrians have fled to neighbouring
countries and to Europe since the Syrian conflict began about four
years ago.
The Obama administration announced in September
that it wanted to resettle about
10,000 Syrian refugees in the US by the same time next year.
