Daines to President Obama: U.S. Should Not Accept Syrian Refugees

Yesterday, Senator Steve Daines called on President Obama to stop the United States from taking in Syrian refugees:

“Until we have the capability to complete comprehensive and exhaustive background checks on Syrian refugees before they reach our shores, the United States should immediately stop taking in new refugees from the region. We are at war with Islamic extremists and anything less than 100% verification of these refugees’ backgrounds puts our national security at risk.

“While I have strong sympathy for those caught in the conflict in Syria and the region, the President’s current plan to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees only serves to open up our homeland to increased security risks, while doing nothing to solve the root cause of the crisis, which is the civil war in Syria. We should instead be focusing our resources on helping refugees in Syria’s neighboring countries, like Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, so that refugees in need don’t have to risk their lives fleeing to Europe.”

In October, FBI Director James Comey testified before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, hearing that they “do see a risk.”