WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, released the following statement today after opposing a procedural motion to advance legislation that would effectively end the refugee resettlement program from Syria and Iraq. Senator King voted in opposition to the bill after the failure to reach agreement on an amendment process.

“Rather than take a vote that may look good in some thirty second TV ad, we owe it to the American people to pursue real solutions. The people of Maine didn’t send me to Washington to take symbolic votes – they sent me here to solve problems. We should be working together to strengthen the refugee program – like we did with the Visa Waiver Program – not compromise national security and fundamental American values by ending it. I believe there can and should be added requirements to strengthen the refugee vetting process, but this bill went too far.

“The safety and security of the American people is my top priority, which is exactly why I am so skeptical that this legislation would have accomplished much in the way of actually protecting anyone. Instead, this bill would likely jeopardize national security by doing two things: first, it would have diverted the attention of our top national security officials; and second, it would have effectively put an end to the refugee resettlement program for those people from Syria and Iraq fleeing unspeakable violence. This would feed into ISIS’s recruitment strategy of creating a divide between Islam and the West. Neither scenario is good for our country.”

The Senate today rejected the advancement of a bill that could have compromised security by redirecting the efforts of the U.S.’s top national security officials, distracting them from other, critical national security matters. It would also create an unworkable, duplicative, and unnecessary process for screening refugees that would overlap the existing, rigorous screening currently in place. Additionally, by effectively shutting down the refugee program and turning away those fleeing war and terror, the bill could create a new ISIS recruiting tool.

National security professionals from both parties – including former Maine Senator and Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, as well as Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, David Petraeus, Brent Scowcroft, and Michael Chertoff – opposed the bill on the grounds that it would undermine our security and benefit ISIS.

Furthermore, in response to a question from Senator King during an Armed Services Committee hearing just this morning, Ryan Crocker, a witness called by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria under Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton, testified that the United States as a world power had a global responsibility to support countries taking in refugees, and that the United States itself should also lead on the issue by taking in more refugees. To do otherwise, Ambassador Crocker said, will send the wrong message to our allies in Europe, exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and, in response to another question he said, provide ISIS with a recruiting tool.

Background on Refugee Resettlement Process:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is the organization in charge of protecting and assisting refugees, refers refugees to one of the nearly thirty countries currently accepting refugees for resettlement based on those countries criteria. Refugees do not select the country to which they are referred.

The refugee screening and vetting process for individuals who may be resettled in the U.S. occurs over an 18 to 24-month period before a refugee is able to travel to the U.S. The process involves federal intelligence, security, and law enforcement agencies – like the National Counterterrorism Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and State – and it includes biometric and biographic checks as well as medical screenings and extensive interviews by trained Department of Homeland Security personnel.

The State Department conducts a number of security checks using personal and background data collected by the Resettlement Support Center. If an individual is cleared, they are then referred to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which fingerprints and photographs them. Those biometrics are then run through other law enforcement databases. USCIS officers then interview the individual in their home country or country of refuge to determine whether he or she qualifies as a refugee and is admissible under U.S. law.

Refugees who have been approved for resettlement in the U.S must also undergo medical screening and cultural orientation, and pass a second interagency check before they are able to travel to the U.S. Before the individual arrives in the U.S., U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP) receives a manifest of all refugees approved to enter the U.S. and uses the manifest to initiate additional vetting before the refugee’s arrival. Once an individual arrives is the U.S., a CBP officer will review each refugee’s document and conduct additional security checks to ensure that the arriving individual is the same person who was screened and approved for admission.

To date, only half of one percent of the 4 million Syrian refugees have been referred to the United States for consideration for admission. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the U.S. has admitted about 2,100 Syrian refugees – half of which have been children with another quarter being adults over 60. 

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