American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I want to first thank the gentleman from Virginia, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for his work on this legislation.

I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the American Safe Act.

Let me be clear. We are a nation at war. The world was reminded last week that Islamic terrorists are seeking to harm our people, destroy our way of life, and undermine the foundational principles of the free world.

Sadly, with the news that at least one of these terrorists may have infiltrated Europe posing as a Syrian refugee, the Paris attacks appear to confirm our worst fears, that, of the thousands of foreign fighters who have gone to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, some would be deployed to bring terror back to the West.

The world is now looking at America for leadership and for a clear-eyed understanding of the threat.

ISIS is not ``contained,'' as the President says. ISIS is expanding globally and is plotting aggressively. The group is now responsible for more than 60 terrorist plots against Western targets, including 18 in the United States.

Here in the homeland, we have arrested more than one ISIS supporter a week in the past year, and the FBI says it has nearly 1,000 ISIS-related investigations in all 50 States.

Today, we must take decisive action to show the American people that we are doing all that we can to protect our country. We must listen to the words of our enemies.

ISIS has vowed, in their words, to exploit the refugee process, to sneak operatives, to infiltrate the West, and they appear to have already done that, to attack our allies.

For nearly a year, intelligence and law enforcement agencies have warned Congress, both publicly and privately, that they are alarmed by intelligence collection gaps and our ability to weed out terrorists from the refugee process.

FBI Director Comey testified before my committee and stated: ``We can query our databases until the cows come home, but nothing will show up because we have no record of them.''

Homeland Security Secretary Johnson said: ``We know that organizations like ISIS might like to exploit this program.''

This is an administration official's words, not mine.

This legislation would add two important layers to our defenses, creating the most robust national security screening process in American history for any refugee population.

The American SAFE Act also strikes an important balance between security and our humanitarian responsibilities. It sets up roadblocks to keep terrorists from entering the United States, while also allowing legitimate refugees who are not a threat to be resettled appropriately.

Let us not forget, this legislation is the first in a series of steps we must take to defend the homeland, but ultimately, to win this war, we must take the fight to the enemy.

Last week, the streets of Paris could just have easily been the streets of New York or Chicago or Houston or Los Angeles.

But as I have said before, our long-term message to these terrorists must be clear. You may have fired the first shot in the struggle but, rest assured, America will fire the last.

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