The following is a transcript of Chairman Goodlatte’s remarks on the floor of the House of representatives during consideration of H.R. 4038, the “American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015”
I support H.R. 4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015.
Just one example of a terrorist taking advantage of the United States’ generous immigration policy in order to perpetrate attacks on Americans is too many. Unfortunately, there are too many examples to count. Most notable of course are the attacks on September 11, 2001, perpetrated by 19 foreign nationals who were admitted to the U.S. through our legal immigration system.
The U.S. government has the ultimate responsibility to protect its citizens. As such, if U.S. immigration policy allows foreign nationals who want to do us harm access to U.S. soil, then the immigration policy must be reviewed and amended.
We are faced with such a situation right now. There is a very real possibility that a terrorist, particularly one from, or claiming to be from, Syria or Iraq, will attempt to gain access to the U.S. as a refugee.
In fact, ISIS is making no secret of their plans to have their members infiltrate groups of Syrian refugees. We should take ISIS at its word.
Of course, our hope is that such an individual would be screened out through the refugee vetting process. Unfortunately we have heard time and time again from top counterterrorism and intelligence officials that the current vetting process cannot prevent such an individual from receiving refugee status.
In fact, just late last month FBI Director James Comey told the Judiciary Committee that with a conflict zone like Syria where there is “dramatically” less information available to use during the vetting process, he could not “offer anybody an absolute assurance that there’s no risk associated with” admitting Syrian nationals as refugees.
And he told another House Committee that “we can only query against that which we have collected, and so if someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that would get their identity or their interest reflected in our database, we can query our database til the cows come home, but … nothing will show up, because we have no record on that person.”
The Administration’s foreign policy inaction in Syria, and failure to take seriously the ISIS threat, are responsible for the flood of Syrians currently leaving their country. Of course we all remember when the President told us that ISIS was the “jayvee team.” That jayvee team just murdered over 120 innocent people in Paris – including at least one American. And the Paris jayvee team included at least one terrorist who was registered as a refugee from Syria.
H.R. 4038 requires certification by the FBI Director that the security vetting process is sufficient to prevent an individual who is a security threat from being admitted as a refugee. The bill also requires that the DHS Secretary, FBI Director, and Director of National Intelligence certify to Congress that each refugee is not a security threat prior to his or her admission to the United States. In addition, H.R. 4038 requires the DHS Inspector General to review such certifications annually and report its findings to Congress. The certification procedures apply to aliens who are nationals of Iraq or Syria, those who have no nationality and whose last habitual residence was in Iraq or Syria, or who have been present in those countries at any time on or after March 1, 2011.
H.R. 4038 puts the Administration on notice that their lax attitude toward this issue will no longer be tolerated. And it puts the Administration on notice that Congress is not yet finished reforming refugee policy.
In fact our Committee has been hard at work long before the Paris attacks working on legislation to make necessary security-related and other changes to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. And we look forward to moving that legislation through the House.
H.R. 4038 is not meant to be the sole solution to the security problems we face in vetting Syrian and other refugees. But it is an important first step. And I look forward to Congress taking additional action to ensure America’s safety.
I thank the gentleman from Texas and the gentleman from North Carolina for the work they have done on this bill. I urge my colleagues to support it and I yield back the balance of my time.
