Cruz: Why the Terrorist Refugee Infiltration Prevention Act of 2015 Is Necessary

The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has emerged as the new face of the radical terror that has bedeviled the West in recent decades. As the American people are now painfully aware in the wake of ISIS’s murderous rampage in Paris last Friday, they have apparently now directly threatened both Washington and New York. Their attacks and threats serve as reminders that ISIS can and, given time and opportunity, will strike the West again.

This jihadist organization is intentionally infiltrating the flood of refugees that are currently entering Europe through Turkey, Greece, and points west. Rather than taking the threat seriously, President Obama has doubled down on his dangerous open-borders policies by proposing to welcome thousands of refugees who have potentially been infiltrated by terrorists to the United States. This headlong rush toward a careless policy comes just weeks after FBI Director James Comey told Congress, in no uncertain terms, that our government lacks the tools to properly screen these refugees.

Since the beginning of the Syrian refugee crisis, more than 2,100 refugees from Syria have already been admitted to the United States. President Obama now wants to accept at least 10,000 more this fiscal year. That’s roughly a third of the 34,000 total refugees President Obama proposes to accept from the Near East and South Asia.

This policy makes no sense. Given the existential nature and scope of the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism, the limitations on our ability to screen the flood of refugees, and the obligations of our government to provide for the safety and security of all Americans, we simply cannot accept refugees from countries that have a significant terrorist presence until the terrorist threat has been eliminated.

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