Warren slams push to block Syrian refugees: They are 'terrified' https://t.co/s9s7m7F27X pic.twitter.com/CQsAds3r2y
— The Hill (@thehill) November 18, 2015
Have I mentioned recently that I {heart} my senior Senator? From the Hill article:
… “[Syrians are] terrified that the world will turn its back on them and their children. Some politicians have already moved in that direction, proposing to close our country to people fleeing the massacre in Syria,” Warren said. “That is not a real plan to keep us safe.”
She added that the United States has “a choice either to lead the world by example or to turn our backs to the threats and the suffering around us.”…
She also took a veiled shot at the Republican presidential field, where Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have suggested refugee resettlement should focus on Christians.
Warren said that the United States isn’t a country that sends “children back into the hands of ISIS murderers because some politician doesn’t like their religion, and we are not a nation that backs down out of fear.” …
Back here in Massachusetts, Rep. Stephen Lynch has apparently decided to become the Masshole Pete King, but he’s not getting much backup, per local news channel WCVB:
… Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-MA, Wednesday called for a “pause” in Obama’s plan to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States, the only member of the Massachusetts delegation calling for a suspension…
But a survey of the other 10 members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation revealed continued support for Obama.
“Proposing to close our country to the people fleeing the massacre in Syria,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, “is not a real plan to keep us safe and that is not who we are.”
Warren said the current vetting process takes up to two years and is far more stringent and thorough than the “open border” policy now in place in most European countries.
The rest of the delegation agreed with Warren that most of the terrorists in the Paris attack had legitimate European visas that would allow them to enter the U.S. outside of any refugee plan.
“We can not shut the door on the very people that ISIS is trying to persecute,” said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-MA. “That is just playing into the hands of the enemy.
“We never let the enemy change our values,” said Moulton, a former U.S. Marine…
That Moulton kid is new to this politics stuff, but I get the feeling he should be included on the list of Young Dems with A Bright Future. He’s gone on the record criticizing our Governor, Charlie ‘Chickenshit’ Baker, for playing the ‘more study needed before we admit any scary Syrian refugees’ card. And, per the Boston Globe‘s Yvonne Abraham, he’s got a pretty good rebuttal to the inevitable “If you want them here so badly, why don’t you take in a refugee?”:
… His translator in Iraq was devoted to those values, Moulton said. “He exemplifies the American dream more than just about anybody I know.” He risked his life, and his family’s, to defend it. When civil war descended on his country, and insurgents targeted his family, it became impossible for the translator — here on a Fulbright scholarship — to return home, so he applied for asylum.
For a while, he lived with the Moulton family in Marblehead. Moulton says he is like a brother.
Even with a decorated Marine captain supporting his application, it took 16 months to complete the security checks and grant the translator asylum. “And he already had a record of service, of literally putting his life on the line for our country in combat,” Moulton said.
Refugees submit to more screening than any other category of traveler coming to the United States, Moulton said, and the State Department and the White House back him up. And it’s not like they’re piling onto boats and streaming over the borders en masse, as they have been in Europe. They don’t set foot in this country until they go through a vetting that takes 18 to 24 months…
Say it with me: Proud to Be A Democrat!