Some House Republicans are not giving up on legislation that would reduce the flow of incoming refugees from terror-plagued nations, forging ahead with a new measure despite certain rejection from the Obama administration and unease over the issue within their own party.
Republican lawmakers have advanced the Refugee Program Integrity Restoration Act, which comes after Democrats last year blocked GOP efforts to temporarily halt Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States.
The latest bill, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month, would reform the nation’s refugee program in a way that proponents say would bolster safety, reduce fraud and empower communities that have been forced to accommodate thousands of refugees from the Middle East and elsewhere.
It cuts the annual allowance of refugees from 85,000 to 60,000, and requires implementation of a program to detect fraudulent documents, among other reforms.
The bill advanced just days before a deadly terrorist attack in Brussels killed scores of people at an airport and train station, bolstering calls for lawmakers to take action to protect the United States from such attacks.
But the Judiciary Committee bill steps into treacherous political territory for the congressional GOP, as party elders try to distance themselves from Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
Trump has been criticized, including by GOP party leaders, for advocating a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
While the bill has cleared committee, it has not been placed on the congressional schedule. GOP leadership aides were unable to say when, if at all, it would be on the House floor.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and the legislative co-author, Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, a former immigration attorney, are making the case for their bill, which they believe is needed to help reduce the possibility that a terrorist will use the refugee program to gain entry into the United States.
“Our bill contains a number of targeted, commonsense reforms that will improve our nation’s refugee program while maintaining our nation’s generosity to people around the globe fleeing persecution,” they wrote in a Fox News op-ed.
A Syrian who was involved in the deadly Paris terrorist attack last year gained entry into Europe by posing as a refugee. Investigators have definitively linked the Brussels attacks to the Islamic State, whose fighters have been able to move freely around Europe and is said to have trained 400 fighters to target European civilians in terrorist attacks.
Republicans began focusing on the influx of refugees after the deadly terrorist shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. The woman who helped carry out the attack was an immigrant from Pakistan. She gained entry not through the refugee system but rather with a fiancee visa, but the incident has called new attention to the program.
In October, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other national security officials raised alarm when they told Congress they cannot thoroughly screen Syrian refugees.
“It is true that we are not going to know a whole lot about the Syrians that come forth in this process,” Johnson said in October. “The good news is that we are better at it than we were eight years ago. The bad news is there is no risk-free process.”
The Goodlatte-Labrador bill includes provisions that would push national security officials into using more tools to screen refugees.
It would require U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to review public social media postings of refugee applicants. The bill would also block DHS from unilaterally waiving inadmissibility factors, including criminal convictions, for refugees.
The legislation would also prevent the federal government from shipping refugees to communities who take legislative action disapproving of them.
And it would strip refugee status from individuals who travel back to their home countries.
The measure would require ongoing security vetting of refugees until the individual becomes a lawful permanent resident and it would enhance the initial screening process by requiring random review of 20 percent of interviews to ensure “that the interpreter correctly interpreted the interview.”
