House chairman sees ‘real risks’ in Syrian refugee effort

The leader of the House Homeland Security Committee is pushing back against the Obama administration’s plan to admit thousands of Syrian refugees into the U.S. at a faster rate.

“We are increasingly concerned by the decision to accelerate the resettlement of thousands of Syrian refugees here in the United States despite the serious national security implications of doing so,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a June 11 letter addressed to President Obama.

{mosads}“There is a real risk that individuals associated with terrorist groups will attempt to exploit the refugee resettlement program in order to gain entry into our country,” he added in the three-page missive that was copied to Secretary of State John Kerry.

McCaul said the screening process for refugees suffers from “vulnerabilities” because of the lack of U.S. intelligence sources on the ground in Syria, and the lack of biometric and biographic information on applicants.

“Simply put, we cannot screen against derogatory information we do not have,” he said.

The U.S. could resettle 2,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year and potentially thousands more in fiscal 2016 under the State Department-led effort. The Homeland Security Department has authority to approve the admissions.

McCaul first raised concerns about the effort in January during a Homeland Security panel hearing, saying the administration is creating a “federally funded jihadi pipeline” into the U.S., a fact he referenced in his letter.

“My Committee and I have been sounding the alarm for months,” McCaul noted, adding that the administration hasn’t responded to a Feb. 19 letter the panel sent asking for more details about the effort. 

He asked the administration to address the outstanding concerns in a classified setting some time before July 7.

“While the refugee resettlement program represents the very best of the United States’ generous and altruistic nature and is a necessary and valuable effort t provide assistance to some families devastated by conflict, we cannot allow terrorists who pose a direct threat to the U.S. homeland to exploit these programs to carry out attacks on our soil,” McCaul wrote.