The South Carolina senator and presidential hopeful urges for more support from the US, which has accepted only 1,500 Syrian refugees so far

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham became the first Republican presidential candidate to call on the United States to admit more Syrian refugees on Tuesday.

In a speech expressing his opposition to the proposed Iran deal, Graham urged the United States to take “its fair share of Syrian refugees”.

The South Carolina Republican said “we should take the Statue of Liberty and tear it down” if the United States continues its current, limited policies on admitting refugees from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Graham also called on European nations to “up their game” in addressing the refugee crisis. In a pointed reference to the second world war, he said to Europeans: “It wasn’t that long ago you needed someone’s help.”

Graham joins Democrat Martin O’Malley as only the second of 22 presidential candidates to call for the United States to admit more refugees from Syria.

Marco Rubio, another Republican presidential contender, told reporters on Tuesday he is “open” to allowing more refugees into the United States – reiterating an answer he first provided in a radio interview on Monday.

“I don’t know what the right number is, but we want to be careful terrorists don’t take advantage ... to infiltrate themselves among the very innocent people that would also be coming,” Rubio, a senator from Florida, said after a campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire.



He added that Europe would nonetheless face the brunt of the refugee crisis and said the US should lend support to its allies.

“We should be able to offer them them assistance, in creating some places and camps where people can live and be safe while this thing works itself out,” Rubio said.



The US has accepted only 1,500 Syrian refugees so far, and the White House said last week it did not anticipate any changes to its current policy.

Rubio’s comments followed a town hall in which he advocated for a foreign policy driven by “moral clarity” and denounced the Obama administration for overseeing a period of global chaos that contributed to the refugee crisis in Europe.

The senator first addressed the situation in an interview Sunday with the Boston Herald Radio and expressed particular concern for Syrian Christians who have been displaced by the ongoing civil war.

“They would prefer to stay in that region, so I think a better outcome here obviously is that we have to provide for their short term,” Rubio told the station. “But long term, we have to have a precise regional strategy that allows, especially the Christians to go back to their ancient cities, and their ancient populations centers, where they have been for almost 2,000 years, up until recent times.”

Graham also used passionate language to denounce those in the Republican party who have followed the lead of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in calling for mass deportation of all 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. A vocal supporter of comprehensive immigration reform within the GOP, Graham used powerful, personal language Tuesday to express his discontent with the rightward tilt of his party on immigration.



The South Carolina Republican, who was left to raise his younger sister after his parents died, told attendees that “when they write the history of these times, Lindsey Graham, who is from the reddest of red states, can say the following: I refused to break up families for my political benefit because I know what it’s like to have your family destroyed.”

Graham said that it is important for the Republican party’s political future to attract Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters would be attracted to “the party of limited government, stronger military, faith-based values, but I’d have a hard time getting there if I believe you were going to deport my mother”, he said.

The three-term senator is currently receiving less than 1% of the vote in national polls and is struggling even in his home state of South Carolina.