Senators Cruz and Sessions let loose in yesterday's Senate hearing on FY17 refugee plan

Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest, grilled three members of the Obama Administration on the plan to admit 110,000 refugees to the US in the next fiscal year which begins on Saturday (Oct. 1).
This is a required hearing under the Refugee Act of 1980 and we will be looking for the House hearing (where are your Reps Goodlatte and Gowdy?).

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Senators Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions were not happy (understatement!) when they heard details of so-called screening of refugees from the failed state of Syria.

Many issues were raised, but naturally the one that brought out the most angry exchanges involved the vetting process.
Leo Hohmann, of World Net Daily, watched and summarized those key points in his lengthy report, here.
This is how he begins:

President Obama’s top official responsible for vetting refugees testified before the Senate Wednesday that it’s possible for people from Syria and other terrorist-infested countries to have their refugee applications approved based simply on personal interviews with a “highly trained” immigration officer.

Leon Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, could not deny that in many cases there is no data from the refugee’s home country that would corroborate or refute his story. He tried to reassure the committee by saying the screening process is lengthy and continuously being improved, noting that the United Nations pre-screens the refugees before his office even sees them.

Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rodriguez at first avoided giving a direct answer on whether it was possible to gain admission as a refugee based solely on an interview. That infuriated Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who chairs the subcommittee on immigration and the national interest. His subcommittee conducted the hearing Wednesday on Obama’s refugee plans for fiscal year 2017, which begins Saturday, Oct. 1.

Obama plans to bring 110,000 refugees to the United States in 2017, up from 85,000 in 2016 and 70,000 in 2015.

The administration has exceeded its 2016 target on Syrian refugees by 30 percent, resettling 12,500 in dozens of U.S. cities and towns, rather than the 10,000 it had promised the U.N.

At Wednesday’s hearing, administration officials refused to say how many refugees they intend to bring in from Syria in fiscal 2017, only that it would likely exceed the 12,500 brought this year. (See my post on that portion of hearing, here.)

Nor did they say how many would come from Somalia, Iraq, Burma, Afghanistan and other hotbeds of Sunni radicalism.

When the subject turned to the process of “vetting” the refugees, sparks began to fly.

Continue reading and see embedded clips (sparks flying) from the hearing.

See American Resistance 2016! for a couple of stories that might interest RRW readers

marching-men 2No time to cross-post, but would love for you to see two posts at American Resistance 2016!
The first is on the globalists (like Soros and Sutherland) and their plans to erase borders and destroy national sovereignty (perhaps the explanation for Angela Merkel‘s strange behavior). Click here.
And, then take a trip down memory lane on the subject of Syrian refugees with Senator Ted Cruz (a year before he joined the 2016 Presidential campaign).  Go here for that story and news clip.

Senators Cruz and Paul use the "M" word! MORATORIUM! Trump follows

Be still my beating heart!  There it is, out there—the M-word!  Several of them in fact!  Moratorium on Muslim Migration!

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Put this word in your vocabulary!

I started to write this post yesterday, then spent the day running out to the doctor (nothing is fast with doctors these days, have you noticed that) and as I’m trying to read news on my phone, the Cruz and Paul news was eclipsed by The Donald news when he jumped on the bandwagon.
However, all of the news reports I was reading and hearing claimed Donald Trump was alone in his call for a ban on Muslim migration to America.  He was actually the third Presidential candidate to make that call. Trump called it a “ban,” but that sounds like moratorium to me.
This is what I started to write about yesterday from Julia Hahn at Breitbart.   She has Senator Cruz uttering the word and I heard Senator Paul say it on Fox News yesterday morning!
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Separating themselves from the pack in a big way!

Presidential candidates Sens. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) are demanding a halt to immigration from Muslim nations with jihadist movements.

Their fellow contender, Sen. Marco Rubio, did not call for curbs to Muslim immigration in his live response to the President address on Fox News – a response promoted by Rubio’s campaign.

Cruz tweeted that if elected president, “I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country.” Cruz elaborated in a statement:

The President should place an immediate moratorium on refugees from countries with a significant al Qaeda or ISIS presence, such as Syria. I’ve introduced legislation to make this happen; it is not a desired step, but a necessary step for the security of the United States.

Similarly, Rand Paul tweeted, “While ‪@POTUS paid lip service to this fight, he plans to keep failed rules in place & allow tens of thousands of refugees to enter the US.”

“Immigration visas & refugees from countries with active terror networks must be halted while we determine how to better secure our borders,” Paul in a separate tweet. “His administration is focused on gun laws that won’t stop terrorists while pushing policies that will let more of them in the country,” Paul wrote.

Continue reading here.
Go here to see the ten Senators who might be counted on to support these calls.

Action Alert!  It is not too late, go here and follow instructions to call Congress today!  Stopping the funding for refugee resettlement is the surest way to get the job done immediately!  Details can be worked out once the money is cut off!  If they can cut off the visas too, more power to them!

Carson and Cruz, first Presidential candidates to speak out on Paris slaughter—say no Syrian refugees to America

There may be others by now, but here is the first story I’m seeing before dawn today reporting on reactions by US Presidential candidates.  ***Update*** Here is a story at Breitbart that must have been posted before terror erupted in Paris last night—see where the Presidential candidates were yesterday afternoon BP (before Paris).  Bush, Kasich and Rubio all said they want MORE refugees.
***Update #2***  Mediaite reported on Ann Coulter tweets last night (after Paris):  “Donald Trump was elected President tonight,” here.  Paris may in fact have been a clarifying moment for many—try to imagine each of the 2016 candidates as President of the US if a similar horror happens here.  Who would you wish to be in the Oval Office?
From Buzzfeed:

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Senator Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson: No Syrian refugees should be admitted to US. Where is your candidate?  Let us know and I’ll update this post.

Following the deadly attacks in Paris Friday night, two prominent Republicans have called for the United States to table plans to accept thousands of Syrian refugees, citing terror concerns.

Sen. Ted Cruz wrote in a statement on Friday that the U.S. needs to “immediately declare a halt to any plans to bring refugees that may have been by ISIS to the United States.” Cruz has raised security concerns before about the prospect of accepting more refugees at this point from Syria.

Presidential candidate Ben Carson said in Orlando, Florida, that Congress should act to block the Obama administration’s plan to accept more refugees.

“If we’re going to be bringing 200,000 people over here from that region — if I were one of the leaders of the global jihadist movement and I didn’t infiltrate that group of people with my people, that would be almost malpractice,” Carson said, according to the Washington Post.

Congress can act to block Obama’s Muslim migration plan (refugee resettlement) in just a few weeks as Congress must act by December 11th to fund the government through fiscal year 2016 (this is separate from the dept ceiling issue of just a few weeks ago).

Congress could do its job for once by using the POWER OF THE PURSE to restrain Obama!

***Update*** This is what you should tell Congress to do!  Cut the funding!
They will pounce on Carson for the 200,000 number, however…..
As for Carson’s mention of the 200,000, note he said “from the region.”  It isn’t that high for one year, but Obama was talking about 2016 and 2017 when he said 85,000 refugees this year and 100,000 next year.  Don’t forget we are taking tens of thousands of other Muslim refugees from Iraq, Somalia, Burma and Afghanistan in that number as well—it is not just Syrians—from the region.
Consider that you rarely hear of the 30,000 plus coming as asylum seekers annually by first getting across our borders illegally or overstaying a visa and then asking for asylum.  Then there is Temporary Protected Status and that astounding monstrosity—the Diversity Visa Lottery—which brings in another 50,000 legal migrants a year, many from countries that hate us!  And, we haven’t even mentioned student visas!
So before someone latches (with criticism) on Carson’s high number, demand that the Administration give an accounting of how many Muslim migrants are being admitted legally to the US each year!  It is probably approaching 200,000, but no one (on the outside) knows for sure.
For more on the 2016 Presidential candidates see our category entitled, ‘2016 Presidential campaign.‘  (We have older categories for both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns as they related to refugees and immigration generally.)  I was surprised to see that we have already written 91 posts on the 2016 campaign.   Without a doubt, immigration is THE issue for 2016!
Endnote:  Watch this video!

Senator Ted Cruz: Syrian refugee flow a national security threat

2016 Presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz has joined Donald Trump and Ben Carson***in expressing alarm about the Obama Administration plans to begin a large scale movement of Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees to your towns and cities.  However, he has gone one step further and has written to key players in the decision-making process and wants answers to many of the questions we have.

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Cruz: Taxpayer dollars should not be spent to import terrorism.

Remember that the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest will be holding a hearing on the Obama Administration’s Determination for FY2016 that has as of this writing declared that we would be taking 10,000 (or more) Syrians to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens of the US starting a week from today.  Senator Cruz is a member of that subcommittee.
Here is his press release yesterday on the matter:

Sen. Cruz: The Refugee Flow Out of Syria Must Be Treated as a National Security Risk

Sends letter to department heads requesting information on policies admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Secretary of State John Kerry, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey. In his letter, Sen. Cruz acknowledges the need to address the humanitarian crisis in the region, but also shares grave concerns regarding the Administration’s intent to import tens of thousands of individuals from Syria and elsewhere who have not been properly vetted for ties to ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra and other radical Islamic terrorist groups.

“In the current threat environment – with an Administration that seems more intent on responding to the interests of the world than the needs of the American people – Congress has an obligation to be vocal and, if necessary, resist this effort. To be clear, this has nothing to do with immigration policy and everything to do with national security. Congress needs much more information before we can allow the United States to engage in a process that could wind up spending taxpayer dollars to import terrorism, much less fund that process,” Sen. Cruz wrote.

I urge all of you to read his 6-page letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and to the heads of the Justice Department, Homeland Security Department and the FBI seeking detailed information on how this decision was made and especially on the security screening practices used that would assure the safety of the American people.
I’m going to be checking to see if the Senate hearing, a week from today, will be live-screened and will let you know.
Get involved!
Is your US Senator on the Subcommittee?  Go here and have a look.  If so, you need to express your concern about Obama’s plan which could see your town (go here for cities that have already begun receiving mostly Muslim Syrians) become a resettlement site for refugees from the Middle East.  By the way, see Daniel Greenfield yesterday—best way to assure we don’t get terrorists, halt Muslim immigration to America!
And, don’t forget the on-going grassroots campaign, here, to halt funds in the CR (Continuing Resolution) for the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
***Does anyone know of any other 2016 Presidential candidates besides Trump, Carson and Cruz who have made their position clear on NOT admitting (or going cautiously on admitting) Syrian refugees at this time?