A new fight might supersede Republican efforts to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, as well as many of President Obama's other initiatives in Congress' funding process. Republicans have attached policy riders to many spending bills, but now have a new, more immediate target: Syrian refugees.
Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates urged an immediate halt to the resettlement effort, saying the United States does not have the capability to make certain that terrorists allied with the Islamic State do not slip into the country along with those legitimately fleeing the tumult in the region. […]
Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has been pushing for the year-end spending package now being assembled to prohibit the administration from spending any money to admit Syrian refugees until the intelligence community approves the process.
The White House indicated on Sunday that it intended to move ahead with the refugee program, and top Democrats in the Senate had been pushing back against Mr. Grassley’s proposal before the Paris attacks. But the new developments are likely to make many Democrats more cautious about lending strong support to the refugee plan and perhaps provide momentum for Mr. Grassley’s proposal.
That would be a strategic win for ISIS, certainly, as much as Republicans’ ongoing efforts to stop President Obama from shutting down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. The United States Congress vowing to shut its borders to people fleeing political persecution, violence, famine, and abject poverty based on their religion will certainly give ISIS and al-Qaida and whatever other terrorist groups lurking out there just one more powerful recruiting tool.
And there's this, from Rex Brynen, professor of political science at McGill University:
The broader question, however, is whether fear of a few evil men (or women) will lead us to sacrifice our basic moral commitment to fellow human beings fleeing war, oppression and deprivation. I, for one, am not prepared to grant ISIS a veto over refugee policy or humanitarian obligations. [emphasis added]
Sign and send the petition to the White House: I support admitting Syrian refugees into the United States.