Congressman Sends Letter To Governor Wolf Opposing Syrian Refugees
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Republican Congressman Lou Barletta from Pennsylvania's 11th District has sent a letter to Governor Tom Wolf asking him to reconsider a decision he has made to continue taking in Syrian refugees.
Barletta, during an interview with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said there is no way to know what the motives of the refugees are in advance.
"I've had four experts, two from the FBI, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, himself, tell us we have nothing in place to screen these refugees from Syria. We have no records. There's no way of vetting them. There's now way of knowing who they are. I'm not only questioning whether we should take refugees from Syria, I'm questioning the program itself. There's nothing to stop an individual from going to Somalia or another country and entering the United States. There's also a problem with the visa waiver program, which there's 38 states where you can come to the United States without any person-to-person interview, without a visa. ISIS has told us they want to attack us here. They said American blood is the best blood and we will taste it soon. Well, I believe them."
He believes an attack similar to what happened in Paris, could happen anywhere in America.
"There are many soft targets in America. As we focus on big cities, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, how about all the many small cities in America, with small police departments where these terrorists are now radicalizing Americans? We know there are at least 50 Americans who went to Syria and we allowed them back into the United States. It only took a handful to kill what we just saw in Paris, the terrible incident in Paris. How easy would it be to go into small cities and kill more people? I think it's at a high risk."
Barletta contends that given the threat faced from terrorism, we need to reconsider our policy of so easily accept these refugees from Syria.
"We do have a proud tradition of accepting immigrants and refugees into the United States but we shouldn't be reckless with the safety of the American people. We are at war with people who have said the American blood is the best blood there is. We are at war. You don't invite people in. I don't know how many of these people just pick up hitchhikers along the way without knowing who they are."