Pause: Senate should take a serious look at slowing flow of refugees

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation that would toughen restrictions on the entry of refugees from Syria and Iraq into the United States.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Critics have panned the measure as excessive and a knee-jerk reaction to the recent terrorist attacks in France. They say the proposed controls would do no good preventing terrorists from entering this country and that they would do a lot of harm to innocent refugees -- men, women and children -- who simply want to escape their war-ravaged homes.

America has always claimed to be a beacon of hope to people seeking freedom from oppression and has opened its doors to the less fortunate, the "huddled masses," they say, and to throw up more obstacles while the desperate refugees seek haven is an affront to that claim.

President Obama, who has vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk, plans to bring in up to 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. The White House is quick to point out that no Syrian refugee who has settled in the United States since 9/11 has been arrested or deported on terrorist-related grounds.

But we are at war.

And we are at war with an enemy that has used the flow of refugees from Syria as a cover to allow them to cross borders into Europe.

This country has yet to emerge from the shadow of 9/11, and the recent attacks in Paris by the Islamic State has Americans everywhere worried and on edge.

Knowing that the terrorists who have openly vowed to attack targets on U.S. soil have used the doors open to refugees with success, you would think our leaders in Washington would see the danger inherent in keeping those doors open and find reason to at least consider pausing the flow of Syrian refugees until a more stringent vetting process is established.

The Senate should give the House bill serious consideration.

Published in Editorials on November 23, 2015 11:29 AM