By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Tuesday, November 17, US Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) and US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued a written statement critical of the slow response in sharing information about suspected terrorist with the US Congress a full three months after the Senators sent a letter to the Obama Administration on immigration and terrorism requesting more information.
Senators Sessions and Cruz wrote in their joint statement: “On August 12, we sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and Secretary of State John Kerry, asking for specific information regarding the nexus between terrorism and our immigration system to be provided to us no later than September 4. Specifically, the letter identified at least 72 individuals in the United States who have been identified as having a connection to terrorism over the last one-year period. According to publicly available information, a disproportionately large number of these individuals are foreign-born immigrants admitted to the United States – and in many cases, are immigrants who naturalized after admission. An additional number are the children of foreign migrants. The letter asked for basic immigration and family immigration information pertaining to each of these terrorists.”
The conservative Senators continued, “More than three months later the Administration has not provided immigration details on a single one of the 72. It is quite telling that this Administration – which seems to have unlimited resources to circumvent our immigration laws and further its executive amnesties – cannot find the time or resources to provide timely answers to these simple questions. Moreover, after this past weekend’s barbaric attacks in Paris, the Administration’s continued insistence on pursuing the massive resettlement of countless individuals from unstable areas of the world reveals a flagrant disregard for the safety and security of the American people. In just the last year, refugees and other migrants admitted to the U.S. from Bosnia, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Kuwait and Bangladesh have been implicated in terrorist activity.”
Senators Sessions and Cruz concluded, “The Administration must commit to answering our questions, and to ensuring the safety and security of the American people by discontinuing its dangerous resettlement policies.”
Alabama’s Sen. Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions III said in a statement on Monday, “the President’s proposal to resettle 85,000 refugees this fiscal year alone will result in a net cost of approximately $55.25 billion.”
Sen. Sessions said, “For the same cost of providing benefits to one refugee in America, vastly more refugees could be helped by establishing safe-zones in Syria or surrounding countries until displaced persons can be safely returned home. This is the strategy likeliest to produce long-term political reform in the Middle East. It is not sound policy to encourage millions to permanently abandon their homes. We have resettled 1.5 million migrants from Muslim nations in the United States since 9/11, and it clearly has not contributed to the stabilization of unstable regions. Under current admissions policies, we can be expected to resettle another nearly 700,000 migrants from Muslim countries over the next five years.”
Sen. Ted Cruz said on Sunday, “We must now face the facts. Between the downing of the Russian jet over Egypt and this massive coordinated attack on Paris, we are seeing an unmistakable escalation of ISIS’ ambitions and the scale of their terrorist attacks outside Syria and Iraq. Even as chaos rages in Paris, we need to take immediate, commonsense steps to preserve our own safety. We need to consult closely with our NATO allies who may be targeted for additional attacks. We need to immediately declare a halt to any plans to bring refugees that may have been infiltrated by ISIS to the United States. We need to redouble our efforts to prevent ISIS agents from penetrating our nation by other means.”
Senator Jeff Sessions is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. US Sen. Ted Cruz is a Republican candidate for President of the United States and is the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts.
Senator Jeff Sessions was first elected to the United States Senate after serving the people of Alabama as US Attorney, Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, and as Attorney General.
