Republicans critical of the Obama administration’s plan to admit 100,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees this year are undercutting their own claims that the self-proclaimed Islamic State is committing genocide, White House spokesman Josh Earnest argued Monday.
“There was a hullabaloo in the Republican Party” about whether the State Department would rule Islamic State’s actions genocide, Earnest said, referring to GOP calls on the Obama administration to do so.
Secretary of State John Kerry declared the terrorist group’s brutal actions genocide of Christians and other religious minorities on March 17. But even after that designation, some Republicans are resisting the idea of taking in refugees.
“Are Republican suggesting that somehow, we should turn our backs on people that we have now concluded are fleeing genocide in their own country?” Earnest asked. “So they’re suggesting that somehow, we should be tough on ISIL and that we should protect people who might be victims of genocide, but we shouldn’t let them in the United States even after they’ve undergone two years of intensive background checks?” Earnest asked, referring to the average wait that foreigners seeking refugee status and relocation to the U.S. typically face.
“That’s not right; that’s certainly not what our values entail,” he said.
President Obama on Saturday reiterated his commitment to admitting refugees, prompting derisive remarks from GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
Such “rhetoric from the Republican Party is counterproductive to our national security and flies in the face of the values that our country hold dear,” Earnest responded.
On Monday, the State Department announced another $20 million to help Europe manage the migrant crisis the Islamic State and the Syrian civil war have created.
