A Secure, Compassionate Nation

Statement

U.S. Representative Reid Ribble (WI-08) today released the following statement after he joined with a majority of the House of Representatives to pass the American SAFE Act of 2015 in a vote of 289 to 137.

"The first responsibility of the federal government to the American people is national security. At the same time, we are a compassionate nation, but we should not assume that compassion only expresses itself in the integration of refugees here in the United States. Compassion is also the $4.5 billion of relief you as citizens have generously provided. Compassion is helping families stay together at safe places nearest their homeland so that reintegration back to Syria after the conflict ends is easier. Syrians in many ways owe it to themselves to rebuild a safer, economically viable nation where they can prosper in their own homes. U.S. assistance in that effort is also compassion.

Therefore, given the significant uncertainty of the intentions, backgrounds, or even the nations of origin of most of the refugees, we have an obligation to operate from a point of caution. Even the President's top advisors have stated they don't know who many of these individuals are and admitted that there are gaps in their process of safely processing refugees. Since the intentions of DAESH are well known we cannot allow a refugee admissions system to operate with holes in it and presently it is impossible to rule out the danger of admitting people who wish to do us harm.

While I feel strongly that we should be compassionate to those in need, I also have a responsibility to make sure our generosity isn't taken advantage of to admit individuals who may seek to harm our nation."

Although the President has ridiculed profound security concerns raised regarding resettling Syrian refugees in America, his administration seems to be echoing those concerns:

"It is true that we are not going to know a whole lot about the Syrians that come forth in this process…we know that organizations like ISIL might like to exploit this [Syrian refugee resettlement] program…the bad news is that there is no risk-free process," DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said on October 21, 2015.

"There is risk associated with bringing anybody in from the outside, but especially from a conflict zone like [Syria]. My concern there is that there are certain gaps I don't want to talk about publicly in the data available to us," FBI Director James Comey said on October 8, 2015.

Given the concerns of the directors of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, Congress would be remiss in failing to act to protect the American people.

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