Free Republic

The House of Representatives passed H.R. 4038, a bill to beef up security measures for admitting refugees from Syria and Iraq into the United States, in a vote 289 to 137 on Thursday. Only two Republicans voted against the bill, while 47 Democrats joined the majority in voting to pass the legislation.

Thursday on WAKR’s “The Ray Horner Morning Show,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said the right’s “demagoguery” on whether to take in Syrian refugees is not valid because since the Sept. 11, 2001, most domestic terrorist attacks in America have been committed by “white males.”

Donald Trump, the 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner, says President Obama is "not going to stop" at just a handful of Syrian refugees. "You know Obama wants to bring not the 10,000, not the 15,000, not even the 65,000 that they talked about in the Democrat debate," Trump tells Breitbart News Daily with Stephen K. Bannon. "Obama wants to bring, I hear, between 200,000 and 250,000 into the country. That's what I hear the number is." Trump added on the show, which airs on Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125, that Obama is a "bad president" because of all of this. "You...

Yes, it could get bigger. It also could mean furloughs, hiring freezes and program cancellations if a solution can’t be found. “We are going to do the right thing for veterans and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson told members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday. “But to succeed, we need the flexibility to use funds to meet veterans needs as they arise.” Without that, he said, “we get to dire circumstances before August. We will have to start denying care to some veterans.” Lawmakers were enraged that the department is only now...

I recently sent a letter to Dayton Ohio Mayor, Nan Whaley, questioning her openness to accepting "resettlement" of "migrants." My questions to the Mayor went as follows: October 13, 2015 Dear Mayor Whaley, I recently discovered that you signed an open letter to President Obama, asking to increase the number of refugees for "resettlement." Have you considered what the effects of this will be on the community? In your letter, you claim "the U.S. has developed a robust screening and background check." Is ISIS now helping with background checks of people fleeing its territory? Is the U.S. government able to...

Two federal agents operating under the umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are claiming that eight Syrian illegal aliens attempted to enter Texas from Mexico in the Laredo Sector. The federal agents spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity, however, a local president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) confirmed that Laredo Border Patrol agents have been officially contacting the organization with concerns over reports from other federal agents about Syrians illegally entering the country in the Laredo Sector. The reports have caused a stir among the sector’s Border Patrol agents.

Dozens of the U.S. citizens arrested in recent years on terror-related charges are immigrants admitted to the United States legally who later obtained citizenship. More than 70 U.S. residents have been publicly arrested and charged with conspiring to help, attempting to help, or actually helping terror networks such as Islamic State in recent years. At least 15 of them received U.S. citizenship after being admitted to the country legally, including one of the Boston bombers.

For five days a coordinated DC Media has been attacking as racists anyone opposed to President Obama’s plan to resettle thousands of Syrians refugees here in America. A new poll shows that the emotional blackmail being hurled by both Obama and his DC Media allies has failed miserably. By nearly 2-to-1 (53% to 28%), Americans oppose the resettlement program.Bloomberg: (Bloomberg content snipped per FR rules) When you add in the 11% who only want Christian refugees, that adds up to 64% who do not want Muslim refugees from Syria.The American people are compassionate but they are not stupid, nor are...

Around 500 fuel tanker vehicles transporting illegal oil from Syria to Iraq for processing have been destroyed by Russia’s Air Forces, the General Staff said. In recent years, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other extremist groups have organized the operations of the so-called ‘pipeline on wheels’ on the territories they control,” Russian General Staff spokesman Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov said. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel have been delivered to Iraq for processing by trucks and the revenue generated from these illegal exports is the one of the terrorists’ main sources of funding, he said. The spokesman displayed...

Members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Tuesday night against a motion supporting Gov. Maggie Hassan's stance against accepting Syrian refugees in the state, following last week’s attacks in France. Alderman Keith Hirschmann originally proposed the motion, saying the board would empower Mayor Ted Gatsas in any efforts to stop a potential influx of 500 refugees from Syria. That figure came from Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard, who said he was told by members of the FBI that 500 Syrian refugees could be headed to New Hampshire. "I was told during discussions with the FBI that 90,000 Syrian...

Under federal law, the executive branch is expressly required to take religion into account in determining who is granted asylum. Under the provision governing asylum (section 1158 of Title 8, U.S. Code), an alien applying for admission must establish that ... religion... was or will be at least one central reason for persecuting the applicant. Moreover, to qualify for asylum in the United States, the applicant must be a 'refugee' as defined by federal law. That definition (set forth in Section 1101(a)(42)(A) of Title , U.S. Code) also requires the executive branch to take account of the alien's religion: The...

Tuesday at a news conference in Kosovo’s capital city Priština, King Abdullah of Jordan declared the planet was in the midst of a Third World War.

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, on Tuesday said it may be necessary to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States. Republicans immediately seized on Schumer's comment, which breaks with other Democrats who have argued against halting the program.

Twenty-Nine Governors are asking President Obama to halt the Syrian refugee program, out of concern for the safety of their constituents. There are currently 31 Republican Governors in office. Of these, 28 have said that they will not allow Syrian refugees into their state. Governors around the country are concerned with Syrian refugees, in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks. At least one of the Paris terrorists pretended to be a Syrian refugee in order to enter Europe and later take part in the attack Friday that led to the death of over 120 people.... One Democratic Governor has...

Tuesday on the House floor, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) said turning away refugees fleeing violence in Syria is “despicable and cowardly and precisely the kind of reaction ISIS wanted.”

ITHACA, NY - Tuesday morning, Mayor Svante Myrick wrote a Facebook post pledging to welcome Syrian refugees to Ithaca. Myrick said, "I'll do everything in my power to welcome Syrian refugees to Ithaca. We must guard against terrorism, and if they have no place to go these refugees are the most likely to be victims of terrorist acts." Accompanying the post was a poll conducted by Fortune Magazine in 1938 and republished in The Washington Post this morning. The poll displays American's opinions toward refugees displaced during World War II in 1938. The poll showed that Americans were overwhelming against...

(Via MediaIte) […] Beck said that he had asked his audience to raise $10 million before Christmas to help take in Christian Syrian refugees. “Stop asking for permission!” he said. “Stop thinking we need permission… We will vet them ourselves. I have former CIA people that are going over and they’re vetting everybody right now. We can save more people by Christmas than Oscar Schindler saved, okay?” Beck said if the State Department refused them entry he’d find them a way in the country, even if he was thrown in jail. “I know some bridges over a river in Texas...

The far-right wing in both America and Europe have seized on the Paris terror attacks as an excuse to turn away the thousands of desperate refugees who are fleeing the terror and violence of ISIS. Thirteen American governors (all Republican) have announced they will refuse to accept Syrian refugees in their states, demonstrating a remarkable ignorance of Constitutional law. As ThinkProgress noted, "the Supreme Court explained in Hines v. Davidowitz, "the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution." States do not get...

The terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted two governors to announce that Syrian refugees will not be allowed to resettle in their states. Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan and Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, both Republicans, issued individual statements Sunday declaring that their states would not be open to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria. Noting Michigan's "rich history of immigration," Snyder's statement said, "But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents."

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s Republican governor, who has bucked many party leaders by welcoming Syrian refugees, is putting the efforts on hold following the deadly attacks in Paris. Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement Sunday that the state is postponing efforts to accept refugees until federal officials fully review security clearances and procedures. He added that Michigan is “proud of our rich history of immigration” but that Michigan’s “first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.” “There will be difficult days ahead for the people of France and they remain in our thoughts and prayers,” he said. “It’s...