SaintPetersBlog - Vern Buchanan Tells President Obama to Stop Accepting Syrian Refugees

By Mitch Perry

Taking his cue from a warning by FBI Director James Comey of "a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we've never seen before," Sarasota area GOP Congressman Vern Buchanan is calling on the White House to put an immediate halt in accepting Syrian refugees into the U.S.

"Terrorists are leaving Syria disguised as refugees and carrying out attacks in the West," Buchanan wrote in a letter addressed to President Obama on Thursday. "The prudent course of action is to halt all admissions of Syrians into the U.S. until the safety of Americans can be guaranteed."

In response to the emerging migrant crisis in Europe and the Middle East last summer, Obama ordered his administration last September to dramatically "scale up" the number of Syrian refugees welcomed into the United States by the end of the fiscal year, setting a target of 10,000.

The U.S. admitted more than 2,300 Syrian refugees in June, sending the fiscal year total soaring past the 5,000 mark, the Washington Times reported in late June. According to data from the State Department Refugee Processing Center, a total of 7,751 Syrian refugees have been admitted into the U.S. since the beginning of last October, and nearly 5,000 in the last two months alone.

In his letter, Buchanan is seizing on Comey's comments before Congress last week that the defeat of ISIS soldiers in Syria and Iraq will likely result in dispersing terrorists elsewhere, including America. "At some point there is going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we've never seen before." Comey added, "Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield."

Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 30 that Washington had "added security checks to the process where they are warranted" and overcome early hurdles, but Buchanan clearly was not placated by that statement.

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