Shocked to find out—Surprise!—that we aren’t resettling Syrian Christians, but mostly Sunni Muslims. I have no sympathy for his position now because he was so willfully blind for at least the last two decades about where this UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program was taking America.
Here is a bit of the news from a stunned Smith at CNS News:
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Thursday that it was “unconscionable” that of the record 499 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States in the first three weeks of May, not one was a Christian.
Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson cited that number, reported by CNSNews.com on Monday, in his testimony on the urgent needs facing Christian refugees from Iraq and Syria.
Smith was speaking at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on what steps should be taken following Secretary of State Kerry’s March declaration that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) was committing genocide in Iraq and Syria against Christians and other religious minorities.
“They can’t even get into a UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees] or IDP [internally displaced persons] camp or a refugee camp, are unwanted, at risk,” Smith said of the Christians in Iraq and Syria.
Someone should really do a full accounting of Smith’s unwavering support for more refugees for your towns and cities (he has been the Republican darling of the refugee industry and its advocates), but I don’t have the time. Here is just one bit I found (in a quick search) from a New York Times story about Smith from 1997 (Crusader and pragmatist!):
…. an anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has attacked him for his efforts to open American borders to more political refugees.
Does he understand that his beloved Catholic Bishops are leading the pack in ‘welcoming’ Muslims to America?