Bowling Green Today

On May 2, 2024, U.S Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) joined forces with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) and 33 other Republican Senators to voice their opposition to the Biden administration's plan to welcome Gazan refugees into the United States. The senators cited potential national security risks and urged the president to focus on returning American citizens held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

The senators expressed their concerns in a letter, stating, “Your administration’s reported plan to accept Gazan refugees poses a national security risk to the United States. With more than a third of Gazans supporting the Hamas militants, we are not confident that your administration can adequately vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States…We are also frustrated that your administration is pushing ahead with a plan to evacuate Gazans from the Strip when there are still American citizens held hostage by Hamas. We demand that your administration cease planning for accepting Gazan refugees until you adequately answer our concerns and focus your attention instead on securing the release of U.S. hostages held by Hamas.”

They pointed out recent poll results showing over 70% of Gazans supported Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as justification for their concern. They further argued that ensuring no Gazans with terrorist ties or sympathies enter the United States would be challenging given that it was Gazans who voted Hamas into power in 2006.

Highlighting recent border incidents, they wrote, “Unfortunately, the risk of terrorists entering our homeland is no hypothetical matter. Border officials have arrested 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists in Fiscal Year 2023, a record-setting number that exceeds the total of the last six fiscal years combined... Given your administration’s abject failure at countering the flow of potential terrorists at our border, how can Congress trust your administration to adequately vet the refugees crossing the Egypt-Gaza border, located nearly 6,000 miles away from Washington, D.C.?”

The senators requested President Biden provide details on the number of refugees his administration plans to accept, the screening measures in place to prevent terrorist sympathizers from entering the country, the cost to taxpayers, consultations with regional partners, and locations for refugee housing.