Bowling Green Today

On May 2, 2024, U.S Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), along with 33 other Republican Senators, voiced their opposition to the Biden administration's reported plan to welcome Gazan refugees into the United States. The senators have demanded that the president halt his plan due to concerns of potential terrorist ties among the refugees.

"Our first obligation should be to rescue our own citizens, not Gazans," stated the senators. They argue that a significant proportion of Gazans support Hamas militants, making it difficult for the administration to adequately vet incoming refugees for terrorist ties and sympathies.

The senators expressed frustration that the administration is moving forward with a plan to evacuate Gazans from the Strip while American citizens remain held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. They insist that any plans for accepting Gazan refugees be put on hold until their concerns are addressed and efforts are refocused on securing the release of U.S. hostages held by Hamas.

A recent poll found that over 70% of Gazans viewed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as the “correct” decision. The senators highlighted this statistic, arguing it underlines the difficulty in ensuring Gazans with terrorist ties or sympathies are denied admission into the United States.

The lawmakers pointed out that border officials arrested 169 people on FBI terror watch lists in Fiscal Year 2023, a record-setting number exceeding totals from the last six fiscal years combined. Given these statistics and their lack of confidence in current border control measures, they question how Congress can trust the administration to adequately vet refugees crossing from Egypt into Gaza, nearly 6,000 miles away from Washington D.C.

To mitigate potential national security threats at taxpayer expense, they have requested President Biden provide details about how many refugees his administration plans to accept, what screening measures will be implemented to prevent terrorist sympathizers from reaching U.S soil, projected costs to taxpayers, whether the administration has consulted with regional partners, and proposed locations for refugee housing.