Senator Ted Cruz on Obama's Syrian refugee proposal: 'Absolute lunacy' article
October 25, 2015 2:44 PM MST
Senator Ted Cruz is not a fan of importing potentially hundreds of thousands of Muslims to America, referring to the idea as "absolute lunacy" during a Q&A session at the Iowa Grassroots Coalition Candidate Honest Assessment Summit on Saturday.
Cruz joined Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) at the event, which was moderated by New Zealand author and speaker Trevor Loudon and live-streamed at Breitbart News.
"With regard to the the Syrian refugees, I think Obama's proposal to accept tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees is absolute lunacy," Cruz said in response to a question from the audience. "...The Director of National Intelligence has told us it's very likely that among those refugees going into Europe are a substantial number of ISIS terrorists," he continued.
Cruz was referring to a statement made by James R. Clapper, who "warned about the dangers of ISIS operatives infiltrating Western countries through the flood of migrants," as reported last month at Breitbart.
Notably, Cruz differentiated between Muslim asylum seekers and Christians who are "facing being beheaded by ISIS..." Cruz continued to assert that America needs to "stand up as a refuge and safe haven for Christians being persecuted by monsters like ISIS."
Middle Eastern Christians are indeed under attack in Muslim-dominated countries, as well as in refugee camps in Europe. Referring to Christians in the Middle East as a "very different circumstance," Cruz explained that "...Middle Eastern Christians are being persecuted...they are facing genocide" and that there is "no reasonable threat of terrorism" from Christians.
While some have been calling for America to accept even more refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East, many are concerned that jihadists could be among those seeking asylum. This concern was solidified during a House Judiciary Hearing this week when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey revealed to Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) that it would be "challenging" to confirm the identities of the refugees.
Here is a partial exchange:
Gohmert: “How can you be sure that anyone [refugees] is who they say they are…?”
Comey: “The only thing we can query is information that we have,” Comey said. “So if we have no information on someone… there will be no record of them… so it will be challenging.”
Cruz joined Gohmert in noting that a disproportionate amount of refugees are men. "If you look at the current refugee wave which is flowing into Europe..." Cruz said, "one estimate was that 77 percent of those refugees are young men, which is a very unusual demographic for refugees."
http://www.examiner.com/article/senator-ted-cruz-on-obama-s-syrian-refugee-proposal-absolute-lunacy
