Posted on 11/16/2015 9:47:39 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.
Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday.
"Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration," Snyder said, according to the Detroit Free Press. "But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents."
The governor had previously said he was working with the Obama administration on plans to resettle Syrian refugees, with at least 200 already relocated by one agency, according to the newspaper.
Snyder said his state wouldn't allow for any Syrian refugees until the Department of Homeland Security reviewed its procedures for accepting migrants, according to the Free Press.
Alabama currently has a single refugee processing center, in Mobile, approved by the State Department, but it hasn't relocated any Syrian refugees, according to Bentley's office.
“The acts of terror committed over the weekend are a tragic reminder to the world that evil exists and takes the form of terrorists who seek to destroy the basic freedoms we will always fight to preserve," Bentley said in his statement.
"I will not place Alabamians at even the slightest, possible risk of an attack on our people," he added.
"The threat posed to Texas by ISIS is very real," Abbott wrote in a letter Monday urging President Obama to halt his plans, pointing to a foiled ISIS-inspired plot in Garland, Texas, in May, among other incidents.
"A Syrian 'refugee' appears to have been part of the Paris terror attack. American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger," Abbott wrote.
"All departments, budget units, agencies, offices, entities, and officers of the executive branch of the State of Louisiana are authorized and directed to utilize all lawful means to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the State of Louisiana while this Order is in effect," Jindal wrote in an executive order issued Monday.
"The Louisiana State Police, upon receiving information of a Syrian refugee already relocated within the State of Louisiana, are authorized and directed to utilize all lawful means to monitor and avert threats within the State of Louisiana," he added.
"As Governor I will oppose Syrian refugees being relocated to Arkansas," Hutchinson tweeted.
"Indiana has a long tradition of opening our arms and homes to refugees from around the world but, as governor, my first responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of all Hoosiers," Pence wrote in a statement. "Unless and until the state of Indiana receives assurances that proper security measures are in place, this policy will remain in full force and effect."
A top aide to Obama said Sunday that the Obama administration still plans to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. over the next year despite the Paris attacks.
"We had very robust vetting procedures for those refugees," White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Fox News.
"There are women and children, orphans of this war, and I think we need to do our part along with our allies to provide them a safe haven," Rhodes added.
The plan to allow the Syrian refugees into the U.S. has faced fresh criticism after the attack that left 129 dead and hundreds more injured. At least one suspect reportedly slipped into France among asylum seekers.
Obama maintained during remarks earlier Monday at the G-20 meeting in Turkey that the U.S. would continue to accept the refugees, including Syrians, only after "rigorous" security screenings.
"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," he said.
Ben Rhodes of the infamous Benghazi: "Dude, This Was Like Two Years Ago".
Yes, you are a moderator? AWESOME. Wish you weren’t so anti-Trump, though, JR rather likes the man.
I’m asking the moderator to update the title.
Yep, THAT Ben.
I heard on the news that all kinds of officials are asking for proof of the “extensive vetting process” the refugees go through.
...crickets...
And when asked by Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press about whether the developments in Paris had given President Obama pause on admitting more Syrian refugees, Rhodes replied:
No, Chuck. We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who come to the United States. There is a very careful vetting process that including our terrorism community, our Department of Homeland Security. Let’s remember, Chuck, we’re also dealing with people who suffer the horrors of war. Women and children, orphans. We can’t just shut our doors to those people. We need to do our part to take refugees in need.
But as I reported here two weeks ago at PJ Media, FBI Director Robert Comey testified before the House Judiciary Committee that vetting Syrian refugees will be “challenging†when asked by Rep. Louie Gohmert about the quality of intelligence and information that exists on Syrians:
Gohmert: Well, without a good fingerprint database, without good identification, how can you be sure that anyone is who they say they are if they don’t have fingerprints to go against?
Comey: The only thing we can query is information that we have. So, if we have no information on someone, they’ve never crossed our radar screen, they’ve never been a ripple in the pond, there will be no record of them there and so it will be challenging.
Those concerns echo congressional testimony given earlier this year by FBI Assistant Director Michael Steinbach to the House Homeland Security Committee about the quality of information available on anyone coming out of Syria:
The concern in Syria is that we don’t have systems in places on the ground to collect information to vet…You’re talking about a country that is a failed state, that does not have any infrastructure, so to speak. So all of the dataset, the police, the intel services that normally you would go to to seek information doesn’t exist.
The FBI director was also asked by Rep. Gohmert during his testimony last month about the database the U.S. government maintained to screen Iraqi refugees, including an IED fingerprint database in addition to other intelligence obtained by U.S. forces and the Iraqi government — considerably more extensive than anything the National Counterterrorism Center has for Syria.
And yet despite the extensive database screening Iraqi refugees, U.S. authorities have admitted that possibly dozens of terrorists were admitted into the U.S. under that program, including two Iraqi terrorists living in Bowling Green, Kentucky, who were convicted of attempting to send weapons and money to Iraqi terrorists.
Comey also said during a speech last month that the FBI has 900 active investigations on suspected ISIS supporters and other extremists.
Nice job on this thread:) thanks!
“There’s virtually no vetting†of refugees’ backgrounds, Representative Peter King of New York said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday†in which he called the U.S. the “main target†for Islamic State. “We don’t know who those people are.â€
Security Screening
As part of Obama’s plan on accepting Syrians, refugees must undergo a 12-to-18-month security screening, meaning new applicants may not be able to enter the country before 2017.
Rhodes said the U.S. is “dealing with people who’ve suffered the horrors of war, women and children, orphans. We can’t just shut our doors to those people. We need to sort out how to focus on the terrorists that we need to keep out of the country. But I think we do need to do our part to take those refugees who are in need.â€
Representative Adam Schiff said what happened in Paris was more than just an intelligence failure.
“It’s a failure also of a coalition campaign, because we have allowed ISIS to have sanctuary in Syria and Iraq with too much time to plan and plot, too much resources to be directed against us,†Schiff, the top Democrat of the House intelligence committee, said on ABC. “Unless that changes strategically, we can expect more attacks like this.â€
Ping to #127.
Send them all to Martha’s Vineyard
When I saw this I wondered for a moment why my state of Missouri is not on the list. But then I realized it’s because we have a POS Governor named Jay Nixon who is owned by the left.
This sorry sack of crap screwed up the Michael Brown/Ferguson situation on more than one occasion and I’m sure he can’t be counted on to do the right thing here.
Jay your political career in Missouri is over. You couldn’t get elected Head Sh*t Shoveler in Ferguson, let alone any other part of the state.
More on Ohio:
http://www.wcpo.com/news/state/state-ohio/ohio-joins-growing-list-of-states-refusing-refugees
“.....The governor doesn’t believe the U.S. should accept additional Syrian refugees because security and safety issues cannot be adequately addressed. The governor is writing to the president to ask him to stop, and to ask him to stop resettling them in Ohio. We are also looking at what additional steps Ohio can take to stop resettlement of these refugees....”
Mission statement
1. To assist in the election of Republican gubernatorial candidates and the reelection of incumbent Republican Governors.
2. To utilize the talent, knowledge, creativity of the governors to effectively debate and shape public policy on issues affecting the states; and
3. To enable Republican Governors to express, develop and promote the philosophy of the Republican Party at the state and local levels nationwide.
But why would they? They would cave to Obama's threats to withhold federal funding.
I wonder what the pay is to LIE to the American People to cover for a dishonest President?
The same Ben Rhodes that did this...
As for the content of the Rhodes email, in a raucous back and forth with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl Jay Carney insisted that the instructions from Ben Rhodes issued on Sept. 14 to prepare then ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice to go on multiple Sunday shows to stress the anti-Muslim video and to deny this represented a presidential lapse didn’t refer to Benghazi.
“The context of Rhodes’ emails is, of course, that President Barack Obama was in the midst of a heated re-election campaign where one of his talking points was that he had brought a steady hand in fighting terrorists, indeed that ‘al Qaeda is on the run.’â€
Any word from Missouri yet? Our governor is so totally inept...
FYI folks: The magic number of states is 38. Constitutionally, 38 states out rank the federal government. Of course, they’ll have to be ready to use force to back it up, but that’s another matter.
As I’ve predicted:
Second Civil War: starts on or before January 20, 2017.
There are 31 states with Republican governors. Every one of those states should be on this list until we can guarantee that refugees do not pose a danger to Americans (an impossible standard with the current system and especially the current Community-Organizer-in-Chief).
Not yet but this source adds
NEW HAMPSHIRE!
Constant busy.
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