{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://amodei.house.gov/news-releases/amodei-president-must-oensure-our-compassion-not-exploited", "Amodei: President must \u00d4ensure our compassion is not exploited'", "2015-11-18", "2015", "2015-11", "Republican", "House", "NV", "Mark E. Amodei", "A000369", "amodei.house.gov", "amodei", "https://amodei.house.gov/news-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013Today, Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) joined 109 of his House colleagues in signing a letter to President Obama urging him to suspend plans to admit thousands of Syrian refugees until the Administration can ensure those individuals do not pose a threat to Americans. It has long been a security concern the Syrian refugee crisis would be exploited by ISIS and other terrorist groups to enable jihadists to gain access to the West. Those concerns were heightened when reports indicated one or more of the Paris attackers gained access to the European Union by posing as a refugee in Greece.\n\nAmodei released the following statement:\n\n\u201cAmericans are compassionate people, but it is not unreasonable to ask the Administration to take measures to ensure our compassion is not exploited. Protecting Americans is paramount and this is an obvious vulnerability. It is not xenophobic to say so and I resent the implication.\n\n\u201cWith all due respect, when the President has regularly downplayed the threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda, only to be proven wrong time and again, what has he done to warrant the benefit of the doubt? Congress has the obligation to provide oversight and halt these plans until the necessary security precautions are in place.\n\n\u201cWhile it is not my preference to engage in political wordsmithing, frankly, given his comments over the past few days, it seems the President reserves greater disdain for his political opponents than he does those responsible for the deaths of thousands at home and abroad, the atrocities in Paris, beheadings, burnings, and the enslavement of women and minors. To suggest that Members of Congress and other American citizens who express concern over a legitimate threat are somehow a recruiting tool for ISIS is disgusting and about the least Presidential thing I\u2019ve seen out of an already disappointing, JV Administration.\u201d\n\nThe letter asks the administration to provide all information regarding admission of refugees and the justification for action to the House and Senate Intelligence, Judiciary, and Homeland Security Committees. The House is slated to take up legislation to address the concerns on Thursday.\n\nText of the letter to the President is available here:\n\nhttp://stivers.house.gov/uploadedfiles/11.18.15_rep_stivers_letter_to_potus_syria-iraq_refugees.pdf\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:30:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://amodei.house.gov/news-releases/amodei-president-must-oensure-our-compassion-not-exploited"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9093713015317917, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}