In his usual polite and scholarly way, Senator Sessions has laid out the case to condemn the President’s reckless (at best!) importation of unscreenable foreigners from the millennial enemy of western freedom — Islam. As the Senator notes, “Good public policy puts the safety and security of this country first,” and welcoming unknowable Syrian Muslims into our neighborhoods fundamentally violates that principle .

What could possibly go wrong with Obama’s scheme?

Preventable terror, suffering and death, for starters — as is happening now in Europe’s summer of terror, following Chancellor Merkel’s insane flinging open the continent’s borders and subsequent jihad invasion.

We should learn from Europe’s terrible immigration catastrophe, not ignore it.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and The National Interest, issued the following statement today about the Obama Administration’s refugee policies, its temporary amnesty for Syrians in the United States, and dangers posed by admitting large numbers of refugees to the United States:

“Despite a clear nexus between immigration and terrorism, and warnings from top officials in his own Administration about their inability to properly vet refugees, President Obama remains in denial ‎about the dangers that his policies pose to the United States. Instead of taking a sober assessment of the ‎dangers that we face, and analyzing the immigration histories of recent terrorists so that we can more effectively safeguard our immigration system from being infiltrated, the Obama Administration leads the United States down a dangerous path – admitting as many refugees as possible from areas of the world where terrorists roam freely, and granting a temporary amnesty to Syrians living in the United States illegally. And contrary to the assertions made by many, the potential for future terror activity is real.

Our primary effort, and that of our allies, should be to provide support to those who are displaced as close to their homes as possible, and work to return them home as soon as possible. Of course, our foreign policy should always seek to avoid situations where such violence and chaos occur. But instead of pursuing these policies, the Obama Administration continues with its radical plans.

The 10,000 Syrian refugees his Administration will admit this Fiscal Year represent a nearly 500 percent increase over the roughly 1,600 Syrian refugees who were admitted last year. This radical increase places the safety and security of the American people at risk, there will surely be consequences.

Since September 11, 2001, we know that at least 40 individuals who were admitted to the United States as refugees have been convicted for, or implicated in, terrorism or terrorism-related offenses – and the total is likely much higher. Some were admitted as adults, others as children, but these cases refute the false assertion that those admitted to the United States as refugees never engage in terrorism. But because these facts do not fit within his worldview, President Obama rejects them. ‎And in so doing, he rejects his sacred oath for what he perceives as political gain.

Plainly, there is no way to properly vet these refugees. Our intelligence databases are only as good as the information that goes into them – meaning that the absence of derogatory information in our systems about an individual does not ‎mean that admitting that individual carries no risk. Nor do we have an effective method to screen refugees for the possibility of potential post-entry radicalization.

Good public policy puts the safety and security of this country first. There is no doubt that this continuous, dramatic increase in refugees from areas of the world where terrorists roam freely will endanger this nation. We must change course.”

BACKGROUND:

According to data from the Department of State, as of August 9, 2016, the Obama Administration has admitted 61,232 refugees this fiscal year, of whom 8,114 are from Syria, 7,322 are from Iraq, 7,067 are from Somalia, 2,838 are from Iran, and 1,924 are from Afghanistan. By all indications, the Obama Administration will achieve its goal of admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, in the coming weeks, the Obama Administration will formally announce its plans for Fiscal Year 2017, but has already indicated a desire to admit a total of 100,000 refugees – tens of thousands of whom would undoubtedly come from these countries.

Members of President Obama’s Administration have described the challenges with vetting refugees from Syria. Indeed, after noting that the FBI can only query against that which it has collected, FBI Director James Comey noted that “if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing show up because we have no record on them.” James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, has expressed concern that terrorists will “infiltrate operatives among” the refugee population. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has stated that admitting refugees is not a “risk-free process.”

Additionally, the Obama Administration announced last week that it plans to grant a temporary amnesty (under the guise of Temporary Protected Status) to thousands of Syrians currently in the United States who may have entered illegally or overstayed their visas. Despite the existence of an ongoing civil war that has raged in Syria for years, according to official statistics from the Department of State, the Obama Administration continues to grant nonimmigrant visas to Syrian nationals at a faster pace than it did before the conflict. Indeed, it issued 10,061 nonimmigrant visas in FY 2015, 12,671 in FY 2014, 15,130 in FY 2013, and 9,408 in FY 2012. As a point of comparison, the Department issued only 8,366 visas in FY 2011, 8,427 in FY 2010, and 7,408 in FY 2009.

Below, are brief descriptions of 20 individuals who were “fully” vetted by the federal government – 19 refugees and one Iraqi Special Immigration Visa (SIV) recipient – who have been implicated in, or convicted or sentenced for, terrorism or terrorism-related offenses in recent years. Five of the refugees and the SIV recipient were admitted to the United States during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. It is important to note that these names represent refugees that have been identified through public sources, but because the Obama Administration refuses to respond to repeated requests for the immigration histories of terrorists recently implicated in, or convicted of, terrorism or terrorism-related offenses, one can safely assume that there are more (there are at least 40 who have been so identified since September 11, 2001). Importantly, this list does not include individuals who were granted asylum, such as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (who were granted asylee status due to the approval of their father’s asylum application).