Sens. Rubio, Graham Vote To Continue Muslim Immigration

A pivotal vote on Muslim immigration split the Republican presidential field in the Senate—with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) voting to continue to allow large-scale Muslim immigration and Senator Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting to pause Muslim immigration.

The amendment, offered Sen. Rand Paul, would have suspended visa issuances to more than 30 Muslim countries with active Jihadist populations. Graham and Rubio were both members of the Gang of Eight, which proposed legislation that would expand Muslim immigration, and Paul and Cruz were both opponents of the Gang of Eight bill.

Graham and Rubio’s vote against curbing Muslim migration follows the attack in San Bernardino. The male suspect, Syed Farook, is the son of Pakistani immigrants; and the female suspect, Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, was a Pakistani native. According to CNN, the two met, “when he [Farook] had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2013 on the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are required to take at last once in their lifetime. It was during this trip that he met Malik, a native of Pakistan who came to the United States in July 2014 on a ‘fiancée visa’ and later became a lawful permanent resident.”

Sen. Paul’s amendment failed 89-10, with only nine other Senators joining Paul’s bid for a halt to the large-scale distribution of visas to nations with jihadist populations. The nine others supporting Paul’s amendment were Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Enzi, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Senator Ted Cruz.

Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Republican Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and GOP Conference Chair Sen. John Thune (R-SD) voted against the amendment.

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