Nearly all S.C. lawmakers support more scrutiny on Syrian refugees

Amid fears the United States could become victim of a deadly Paris-style terrorist attack, the House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to impose heightened security measures on Iraqi and Syrian refugees seeking to resettle in this country.

The vote reflected the widespread distrust in the vetting process for refugees from those countries despite the Obama administration’s insistence that the system screens them more intensely than any other population.

“You know the president gave a speech on Monday in Turkey, he said our vetting process is entirely perfect. If that’s the case, then why is he afraid of this bill?” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C.

“My guess is that the statement that he made regarding the vetting process being 100 percent airtight right now won’t bear close scrutiny.”

Lawmakers voted 289-137 on a measure sponsored by Reps. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, that would prevent refugees from those battle-scarred nations from entering the U.S. unless the heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the director of National Intelligence certify that each refugee doesn’t pose a threat to the U.S.

“When we allow refugees into this country, we must be guided by one single principle,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on the House floor. “If you are a terrorist or a threat to our country, you are not getting in. Period.”

While President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation, the support of the more than two thirds of the House can override it.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., hit back at Obama earlier on Thursday while chairing a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security that focused on the “risk” of resettling Syrian refugees in the United States.

“The president says we’re scared of widows and orphans. With all due respect to him, what I’m really afraid of is a foreign policy that creates more widows and orphans,” Gowdy said in a direct response to the president’s comments earlier this week saying that those who want to bar Syrian refugees from entering the country are “scared of widows and 3-year-old orphans.”

“So where, maybe, he ought to start is a foreign policy in the Middle East, including Syria, where people can go back to their homelands, which is their preference,” Gowdy said.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and 30 other governors have said they oppose Obama’s existing plan to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States.

“Until I can be assured that all potential refugees from Syria have no ties to terrorist organizations, I am requesting that the State Department not resettle any Syrian refugees in South Carolina,” Haley said.

While South Carolina has resettled more than 900 refugees since 2010, none has been from Syria. All refugees entering the state are resettled by two Christian relief organizations. The Spartanburg World Relief office has resettled 61 refugees in the past year, most from Burma and Congo. More than 84 percent are “professing Christians,” the organization said, and there are no plans to resettle Syrians in 2016.

The second organization, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, has resettled families who have mainly come from Eritrea and Burma in the last year, but said they might see Syrian families in Columbia next year if the president’s plan holds.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 6:00 PM.