The Patriot Post® · Refugees Are Syria's Business for U.S.
More than four million Syrian refugees have poured into Europe since the start of the country’s war five years ago. But it only took one of them to change Paris forever. Three days after the tragedy in France rocked the world, officials have confirmed that at least one of the terrorists snuck into the country posing as a Syrian refugee. That revelation, combined with fresh fears that ISIS is on the move in the West, is igniting a firestorm in the U.S., where President Obama announced his plans to open America’s arms to at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016 (and as many as 100,000 if Democrats get their way).
Barely three days after terrorists unleashed one of the deadliest attacks since 9/11, our president is suggesting that the U.S. knowingly roll out the welcome mat for a population increasingly gamed by ISIS. (The same ISIS, incidentally, who’s already vowed to strike America “in its stronghold, Washington” next.) Of course, the White House’s foolhardy plan should come as no surprise to anyone following this administration’s clearly failed foreign policy. Let’s not forget: a day before the Paris attacks, the president insisted ISIS had been “contained.” Now, after the bodies of more than 129 innocent people have proven him wrong, he’s trying to give radical Islam exactly what it wants: a free path to the United States.
To get it, the president will have to go through plenty of people first. Dozens of governors, state leaders, congressmen, senators, agency officials, and security experts are lashing out at the plan, which they consider a deadly mistake. “We cannot allow Syrian refugees in the United States in the current dangerous environment,” said Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas). “We don’t want to be complicit with a program that could bring terrorists into the United States.”
In the Senate, members are urging the president to wake up and consider the risks to national security. “While our country has… an important role to play in the heartbreaking Syrian refugee crisis, our first and most important priority must be to ensure that any refugee who comes to the United States does not present a threat to the American people,” several wrote. “The time has come to stop terrorists from walking in our front door,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). If they have to, Republicans are willing to lay everything on the line — including government spending — to stop it. On the Hill, nothing is off the table, including a messy spending fight when the short-term continuing resolution runs out next month.
Meanwhile, across the country, nearly two dozen governors — including Democrat Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — are racing to protect their own borders. Some, like Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) are refusing to accept refugees altogether. Others have suggested vetting people by religion — an approach the president called “shameful.” Ironically, his administration is already doing that! As CNSNews.com exposed, America already does discriminate — against Christians! Only 53 of the 2,194 Syrian refugees admitted into the U.S. since the war have been Christians. That’s 3%, compared to 96% who are Muslim. Obviously, not every Muslim coming to America wants to kill us — but so far, those who do want to kill us are Muslim.
That’s an uncomfortable reality, even for the church. There seems to be a growing chorus of Christians who justify these open-door policies on immigration or asylum with the Bible’s command to “love the stranger.” I agree, we should love the stranger — but that doesn’t mean we have to do so at the expense of our own security. The president’s chief responsibility is to protect Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic. It’s our job then, as individuals, to show love and compassion. And there are plenty of charitable solutions for refugees that don’t involve bringing them to America, unchecked and unaccountable. One option would be to make their homelands safe while we offer as much humanitarian relief as possible.
Our nation can be caring and benevolent without unnecessarily endangering our own people. What many forget is that in Scripture, loving the stranger is just one component. God also commands these foreigners to assimilate and keep the laws of the land. As Exodus 12:49 makes clear: “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” The United States’ goal should be a safe haven for everyone. And that means protecting the refugees’ shelter abroad without sacrificing ours at home.
Dump Planned Parenthood, Not Babies!
After 11 videos, it’s obvious that Planned Parenthood doesn’t just see life as trash — they treat it as such. In a horrifying new development, at least two South Carolina Planned Parenthood clinics are being charged with illegally dumping aborted babies in a public landfill. The news, which broke late last week, implicates a handful of Cecile Richards’s offices, which were caught by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) steam-sterilizing the babies’ bodies and then taking them to a garbage heap, rather than disposing of them respectfully as the law requires.
The raid into clinics earlier in the month was already a black eye on Planned Parenthood’s fight back to respectability, with at least 21 clinic violations on their state record. Now, with these latest revelations, the organization faces fines as high as $51,000 — which “surprised and dismayed” local Planned Parenthood officials, who apparently thought a landfill was a perfectly reasonable place for a mass grave.
Thanks to Governor Nikki Haley (R-S.C.), the state is cracking down on the group that benefits from more than a half-billion taxpayer dollars a year. The state’s new head of DHEC, Catherine Heigel, has made the issue a priority in her relatively brief time at the helm. “We are substantially better positioned to effectively regulate these [abortion] facilities,” she told reporters. “At the end of the day, our role as regulator is to protect the health and safety of patients who use these facilities.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are one vote away from sending a bill to defund Planned Parenthood to the president’s desk. [Tuesday], Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed rumors that the GOP may strip the Planned Parenthood language out of the budget reconciliation bill to placate liberal Republicans. He told reporters he is “confident” a rollback of ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood defunding will be in the Senate reconciliation bill. Wavering senators should take a long hard look at the pattern of criminal abuse and callous disregard in places like South Carolina, where tiny corpses are literally treated like garbage. It’s time to send a message to Cecile Richards that the only thing that should be dumped is Planned Parenthood! Contact your senators and tell them to hold the line on the House bill.
Israelis Address Labels of EU
The Paris attacks are forcing everyone to rethink their strategies against radical Islam — except, apparently, the EU. While the rest of the world unites against ISIS, the European Union is obsessed with punishing its greatest target: Israel. In a somewhat surprising move (one that received relatively little media attention last week), the EU voted to boycott Israeli entities that operate in eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank.
The boycott includes “all funding, cooperation, and the granting of scholarships, research grants and prizes” to Israeli businesses or organizations that are beyond the 1967 ‘Green Line.’“ The decision, which is eerily similar to what the Nazis did to Jews during the Holocaust, has been roundly criticized this week by people who think the EU is too preoccupied bashing Israel to fight terror. "Europe will need a lesson in the priorities of labeling,” said the president of the Jewish Journal. “Label the terrorists, yes. Label their ideology, yes. Label the allies who can help you fight them, yes. Just stop labeling Israeli tomatoes.”
The irony is that Palenstinian workers are the one who will be hurt by the EU’s directive. As members of FRC’s recent tour of Israel saw when we visited Ariel, a city in Samaria, this thriving “settlement” with a university and industrial park employs thousands of Palestinians. You’d think that given the increasing volatility of the Middle East the EU would be more interested in partnering with Israel instead of marginalizing them.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.