Mr. Speaker. If any one of those reviews pops up with a problem. that person cant be considered for the refugee programno excuses. Unlike in Europe. where migrants crossed into countries that had little opportunity to vet them. no alien is allowed onto U.S. soil until all the checks are completed to DHS satisfaction. As has already been said by my colleague. ZOE LOFGREN. it takes about 18 to 24 months to process an applicant for refugee status. Now. that processing is thorough. Mr. Speaker. and it is complete. But there has been a reference to a stolen passport in the Paris situation. That person. if they had applied for the refugee program. would have had to go through the same process of vetting that would have required at least 18 to 24 months. So the thought that that person could just get on a plane and get here to this country is actually not accurate. and that is my effort to perfect the record. Our system of vetting is a multilayered. multiagency approach where the FBI has veto authority on any applicant seeking refugee status. While no system is risk free. the protections in place in the American system are rigorous. robust. and extensive. In fact. Mr. Speaker. yesterday a witness that the majority invited to appear before our committee. Matthew Olsen. the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. told our committee that no refugee program in the world is as extensive as what we do in the United States. Yet. here we are today considering H.R. 4038. a bill that would upend the current system. which was developed by security personnel with one thought in mind: to protect the homeland. And these security personnel have done a wonderful job. To the knowledge of all of us. none of the refugees that we are talking about from Syria or Iraq who came through this system have done anything but been model citizens since they have been here. Just for the record. there were 23.000 people that applied for refugee status from these two countries. Of those 23.000. about 7.000 were actually interviewed. Of those 7.000. only 2.000 were admitted.
Keywords matched
refugees migrants refugee