{"id":29218,"date":"2015-11-16T09:01:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T17:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/syrian-refugee-policy-takes-focus-in-us-2016-politics\/"},"modified":"2015-11-16T09:01:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T17:01:22","slug":"syrian-refugee-policy-takes-focus-in-us-2016-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/syrian-refugee-policy-takes-focus-in-us-2016-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian refugee policy takes focus in US 2016 politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014<\/strong> The bloody attacks in Paris are putting the Syrian refugee crisis at center stage in U.S. politics as migrants from that war-torn country surge toward the West and security concerns rise.<\/p>\n

GOP presidential contender Marco Rubio on Sunday said the United States should no longer accept Syrian refugees because it\u2019s impossible to know whether they have links to Islamic militants \u2014 an apparent shift from earlier statements in which he left open the prospects of migrants being admitted with proper vetting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to, it\u2019s that we can\u2019t,\u201d Rubio said Sunday on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d \u201cBecause there\u2019s no way to background check someone that\u2019s coming from Syria. Who do you call and do a background check on them?\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of admitting Syrian refugees has for months been part of the national security discussion among 2016 candidates that cuts to the heart of the American identity as a refuge. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday told NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that the U.S. should admit Syrian Christians, after proper vetting. Other Republican candidates have called for a ban on allowing Syrians into the U.S. All three Democratic presidential candidates have said they would admit Syrians but only after thorough background checks.<\/p>\n

But Friday night\u2019s mass killings in Paris, which left at least 129 people dead, offered evidence that may have backed up what many, including Rubio, had been warning: People with secret ties to Islamic militants could flow across borders as part of waves of refugees.<\/p>\n

Authorities said a Syrian passport found near one of the Paris attackers that had been registered last month and traveled through three countries along a busy migrant corridor known for lax controls. It was not clear whether the document was real or forged. Officials on Sunday were still trying to identify people involved in the conspiracy. They said as many as three of the seven suicide bombers who died in the attacks were French citizens.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for President Barack Obama said Sunday that the administration is moving forward with its plan to thoroughly vet and admit as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need to be able to do frankly is sort out that foreign fighter flow, those who have gone into Syria and come out and want to launch attacks or those people who have connections with ISIL in Syria,\u201d Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Fox News Sunday. \u201cAt the same time, we have to recognize there\u2019s tragic victims of this conflict, there are women, and children, orphans of this war and I think we need to do our part, along with our allies, to provide them a safe haven.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Paris attacks have elevated national security in the presidential contest. In Saturday night\u2019s Democratic presidential debate, which began with a moment of silence for the Paris victims, all three candidates \u2014 former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O\u2019Malley \u2014 said the U.S. should admit far more than the 10,000 Syrians to which Obama has committed, but only with proper screening.<\/p>\n

Rubio on Sunday said that was impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t pick up the phone and call Syria, and that\u2019s one of the reasons why I said we won\u2019t be able to take more refugees,\u201d Rubio said on ABC.<\/p>\n

That is a switch from Rubio\u2019s other statements this fall, in which he voiced skepticism about proper vetting but still left the door open to admitting refugees. In September, he told Boston Herald radio: \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a country that\u2019s been willing to accept people who have been displaced. And I would be open to that if it can do it in a way that allows us to ensure that among them are not infiltrated, people who are part of a terrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, said Sunday that the U.S. has a responsibility to \u201chelp with refugees after proper screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think or focus out to be on the Christians who have no place in Syria anymore,\u201d he added in NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u2018\u2019They\u2019re being beheaded, they\u2019re being executed by both sides. And I think we have a responsibility to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Laurie Kellman on Twitter at: http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/APLaurieKellman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The bloody attacks in Paris are putting the Syrian refugee crisis at center stage in U.S. politics as migrants from that war-torn country surge toward the West and security concerns rise. GOP presidential contender Marco Rubio on Sunday said the United States should no longer accept Syrian refugees because it\u2019s impossible to know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29218"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}