The Patriot Post® · ISIS Fighter Exploited Obama's Lax Refugee Policies

Recent news gives credence to President Donald Trump’s reasoning behind his early executive order that created a temporary travel ban on people coming from several Muslim-majority countries — countries that by the way were identified as problematic by Barack Obama’s administration. Recall that the travel ban sparked months of Democrat and Leftmedia outrage, as well as several court challenges. Trump’s argument for the temporary ban was the need to shore up the vetting process so as to prevent potential terrorists from entering the U.S. Well, here we have an instance proving that rationale was well reasoned.

On Wednesday, FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested an Iraqi national who had fought for the Islamic State and had murdered an Iraqi policeman prior to entering the U.S. as a refugee in 2014. Omar Abdulsattar Ameen was an ISIS jihadi in Iraq in 2012 and later fled to Turkey, where he applied for and was able to secure refugee status with the U.S. in June 2014. Upon getting permission to enter the U.S., Ameen first traveled back into Iraq, where he joined a group of ISIS fighters who attacked and murdered an Iraqi police officer. Ameen was the one who fired the fatal shot. Then in November 2014, Ameen traveled to the U.S. as a refugee, where he subsequently applied for a green card and did not disclose to U.S. authorities his ties to terrorism.

“This is just one example of how raising the bar on our security standards has directly increased our ability to protect and secure our nation from terror groups abroad,” Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton said in a statement. Houlton explained, “Soon after her confirmation, Secretary Nielsen directed further improvements to close identified security gaps and to make it harder for terrorists, criminals, and fraudsters to exploit our humanitarian system. Tighter screening and tougher vetting in the refugee program have already started to make Americans safer at home.”