Rick Santorum Opposes Taking More Refugees from Syria After Paris Terror Attacks
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In the aftermath of Friday's terror attacks in Paris, presidential candidate and former Senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum came out against allowing more Syrian refugees to enter the United States.
Santorum, talking with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said taking refugees out of Syria actually aids the ISIS plan to take over the region.
"Why are we taking them out of the region? When we do that, and relocate them in America, they'll never go back into the Middle East. What will that accomplish? It will accomplish everything ISIS sets out to accomplish. When we relocate Christians into the United States, we accomplish want ISIS wants, which is to rid the Middle East of Christians. When we relocate moderate Muslims into the United States, we accomplish exactly what ISIS wants, we take out those who would oppose ISIS out of the region and we relocate them here. So, by bringing them here to this country, instead of relocating them in the region, where they will return and, hopefully, provide a more stable long term future for that area, we are now making the job harder to defeat radical Islam."
He also insisted there is no way to determine who the refugees are and what their intentions will be when they arrive.
"We have our own Homeland Security Department telling us that we cannot properly vet people from this region. We don't know who they are. In many cases, they don't have documents. Again, look at the reality that 70 percent of the people leaving Syria are military age men. This is not your typical refugee flow. This is something very different going on. Are there real refugees? Of course there are. Are there people that are not going to harm the United States? Of course there are. But we don't know who they are and what we do know is that ISIS has already planted someone in France who committed these crimes who were part of this refugee flow."
Santorum also targeted fellow Republican presidential candidate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, for misleading people regarding his stance of immigration.
"Actually, Senator Cruz called for a 500 percent increase in H1B visas and the doubling of green cards. He's now, in the last couple of days, now that all of that has been brought to light, he's backed away from it, but the bottom line is Senator Cruz and Senator Rubio are not that far different on the issue of immigration. They're different in the way they talk about it. Senator Cruz talks tough, but the bottom line is his positions have been horrendous when it comes to the issue of immigration, including amnesty. He has supported amnesty. He has never called for the enforcements of E-Verify on all businesses. There's a game being played here by some conservatives to talk tough and to act weak."
