Speech #1140064472

Their ability has been limited by restrictions on their ability to conduct surveillance. In effect. we are voluntarily admitting individuals at risk for terrorism and then on the back end trying to stop them from carrying out bad. violent designs. The former head of the Citizenship and Immigration Services union. which represents immigration workers who handle the casework on these evaluations for admission. issued this warning more than a year ago. This is important. This is the man who represents the individuals who do the work every day. and he got frustrated and he told the truth. This is what he said: It is also essential to warn the public about the threat that ISIS will exploit our loose and lax visa policies to gain entry to the United States. Indeed. as we know from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. from the Boston Bombing. from the recent plot to bomb a school and courthouse in Connecticut. and many other lesserknown terror incidents. we are letting terrorists into the United States right through our front door. . . . Applications for entry are rubberstamped. the result of grading agents by speed rather than discretion. Weve become the visa clearinghouse for the world. We cant properly vet the people coming now. Yet we are still talking about adding more and more people to it. Senator CRUZ and I sent the administration a list of 72 individuals charged with or convicted of terrorismrelated offenses in just the last year. We wanted to know something. We asked for the immigration histories of each one of these individuals. Isnt that a good thing to know? We are policymakers. We are supposed to decide how to conduct immigration issues. As we evaluate how to improve our immigration situation. shouldnt we know how these terroristswho have been arrested. charged. or convictedgot into the country? Well. stunningly. the administration has just refused to respond. They didnt respond because they dont want the public to know. They think if they can ignore these requests. then people will not know and will not begin to question how things are being conducted. Congress should not acquiesce to the Presidents refugee funding request when he refuses to even publicly disclose the immigration history of these 72 terrorists. many of whom are involved with and directly connected with Al Qaeda and ISIS. An outright majority of the public opposes resettling Syrian refugees in the United States. In fact. voters across all parties wish to see a reduction of Middle Eastern refugee settlements. It is in the data. That is what people think.