House passes bill making it tougher to let in Syrian refugees

The Republican-led House on Thursday passed a bill with bipartisan, veto-proof support that would make it harder for the U.S. to allow in Syrian refugees.

Nearly 50 Democrats joined all but two of the chamber’s Republicans in passing the bill, which would require the FBI to conduct background checks on Syrian and Iraqi refugees slated to enter the U.S. and would oblige the heads of the FBI and Homeland Security Department and the director of national intelligence to certify to Congress that each refugee “is not a threat to the security of the United States.”


Those measures would, in effect, suspend the admissions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the U.S.
“It is against the values of our nation and the values of a free society to give terrorists the opening they are looking for by not tightening entry restrictions,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said after the vote, which exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised presidential veto.

The vote in the House follows last week's horrific ISIS attacks in Paris and comes amid increased fears among U.S. lawmakers that terrorists from the Middle East could pose as refugees and sneak into the U.S. to carry out additional attacks.

Opposition has quickly grown against a White House plan to allow into the U.S. 10,000 carefully vetted Syrian refugees. At least 31 governors, mostly Republicans, are threatening to refuse entry into their states for those refugees.

In addition, a growing number of GOP presidential candidates, including Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, have called for the U.S. to only allow Christian Syrian refugees to enter the U.S. — criteria Obama has called “shameful.”
House Republicans, however, said their bill contained no religious tests for the refugees.
Obama, who has repeatedly pledged to move forward with a plan to allow into the country 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming months, has nevertheless promised to veto the bill if it also passes the Republican-controlled Senate, saying the legislation would not improve America’s security.

“(The bill) would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world, many of whom are victims of terrorism, and would undermine our partners in the Middle East and Europe in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis,” the White House said in a statement.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t yet scheduled debate on the issue.
According to data provided by the White House, none of the 2,174 Syrians admitted to the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been arrested or deported because of alleged extremist ambitions.

Currently, the refugee screening process takes 18 to 24 months and includes interviews, fingerprinting and database cross checks by several federal agencies. Syrians undergo additional screening involving data from the UN Refugee Agency and interviews by Homeland Security Department officials trained to question Syrians.