(Headline USA) The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee defended the Biden administration’s decision to consider admitting Palestinian refugees into the U.S., claiming this weekend that they will be “thoroughly vetted.”
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., was asked on Sunday about his Republican colleagues’ pushback to the administration’s plan, specifically their concerns that the U.S. would be importing a population known for its hostility toward the West.
Congressman Jim Himes joined Fox News Sunday to discuss Israel-Hamas cease-fire talks and reports that the United States might accept Gaza refugees.
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“What I can tell you is that this is not a thing,” Himes told Fox News. “The only way that people can apply for refugee status is if they … begin a very lengthy process of vetting.”
He went on to accuse his “over-caffeinated” Republican colleagues of “selling an awful lot of fear right now.” Himes added, “I would challenge you to come up with examples where refugees who have been vetted have come to this country and committed acts of terrorism.”
A report last week revealed that Biden officials are considering using the United States Refugee Admissions Program to grant refugee status to those fleeing the Gaza Strip into Egypt. Gazans with family members in the U.S. would also be eligible for refugee status, according to the report.
In response to the report, a group of Republican senators warned that the Biden administration would be opening up the U.S. to increased national security threats by allowing Gazans to flood into the country.
“A recent poll found that 71% of Gazans viewed Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, including the rape of innocent women, their murder of children, and their murder of and capture of Americans as ‘the correct decision,'” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said last week. “And yet our president is considering an action to bring Gazan refugees to our homeland.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to speak on the Biden administration’s reported plans, but claimed the vetting process for those entering the country “is something that we take very, very seriously.”
