Speech #1140059165

This costly housing initiative will cost about $387 million a year and will only fund half of this by 2020. Sweden is also known for its horrific rape numbers. Recent refugeesand now their Swedishborn childrenare responsible for more than half of those convicted of rape. murder. and robbery. Clearly. the existing approach to addressing the plight of refugees is simply not working. Are these really the sort of problems that we want here at home and the United States? Again. I am not saying that brutal rapes. gang violence. and domestic terror are the norms. but. rather. they are the risks that have been seen in Europe that come along with accepting large numbers of refugees without proper vetting and screening. While refugee crises are tragic. crimes committed by transplanted people against unsuspecting. unprotected victims in their own country are even more tragic. The five wealthiest countries on the Arabian PeninsulaSaudi Arabia. United Arab Emirates. Qatar. Kuwait. and Bahrainhave not taken in a single refugee that we know of. Instead. they have argued that accepting large numbers of Syrians is a threat to their safety. as terrorists could be hiding within an influx of people. The only help so far from Saudi Arabia is an offer to build 200 mosques in Germany. It is quite apparent that the fear of importing terrorists is real for American communities if Syrias own neighbors will not admit these refugees. My investigation of the refugee resettlement policies have also led to a concern for the most persecuted religious minority in the entire Middle East region: Christians. Of the nine nongovernmental organizations which receive Federal grants and contracts to resettle refugees. six are designated religious charities. However. I could find no mission statements from any of them about saving Christians. The U.N. connection could explain why so many nonChristian refugees are chosen to be brought into the United States while persecuted Christians in Syria. Iraq. Egypt. and other nations there have a very hard time getting within sight of the Statue of Liberty. In fact. the glaring shortcoming of the U.N. refugee program is that it falls short of helping one of the most persecuted groups around the world. and that is Christians. According to reporting by Nina Shea and Elliott Abrams. the United Nations High Commission on Refugees refuses to classify Christians as a persecuted group eligible for resettlement on this basis. Why? Because our Department of State chooses to adhere to a definition of refugees as people persecuted by their own government. The murders of Christian men. the rapes of Christian women. and the butchery of Christian children apparently do not count. These people are routinely beheaded. crucified. burned at the stake. sold into slavery. or have their property confiscated.