releases: http://dankildee.house.gov/kildee-syrian-refugees-victims-of-terror-federal-vetting-process-exhaustive/
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://dankildee.house.gov/kildee-syrian-refugees-victims-of-terror-federal-vetting-process-exhaustive/ | Kildee: Syrian refugees victims of terror, federal vetting process exhaustive | 2015-12-04 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Democrat | House | MI | Dan Kildee | K000380 | dankildee.house.gov | legacy | Kildee: Syrian refugees ‘victims of terror,’ federal vetting process ‘exhaustive’ December 4, 2015 Kildee: Syrian refugees ‘victims of terror,’ federal vetting process ‘exhaustive’ Syrian refugees are “victims of terror” who have been conflated with perpetrators, according to U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, who criticized “cynical political gestures” to deny or limit resettlement opportunities in the United States. “If we really want to fight terror, we also have to be willing to say we’ll help those people who are seeking refuge,” Kildee, D-Flint, said Friday during a taping of “Off The Record” on WKAR-TV. “I think it’s a really dangerous place for us to go as a country when we start thinking about victims of violence who are seeking shelter from the United States, who don’t happen to look like a lot of Americans perhaps — maybe that’s the issue — somehow all of a sudden being the problem.” Kildee, taking questions from a media panel, criticized rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump and said he disagreed with Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to pause refugee resettlement efforts in Michigan while calling for a review thorough review of the security vetting process. “Nobody has been able to show me that the process is not exhaustive,” Kildee said. “It takes 18 to 24 months to get a person throughout the process, whereas just a passport held by a person of Syrian descent who might be a French citizen or a Belgian citizen could get them to New York in six hours.” The Obama administration, responding to the Paris attacks, this week announced a new screening process for passengers entering the U.S. under a visa waiver, flagging those who have previously traveled to a country known to harbor terrorists. That type of action is more appropriate than Congressional attempts to impose restrictions on Syrian refugees, according to Kildee. “The vetting process does work,” he said. “What isn’t working is we have a visa waiver program, the president is now addressing this, a visa waiver program that would allow person with an ominous background who happens to possess a European passport to simply get on a plane in Paris and be in New York.” | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |