Portman votes to strengthen refugee screening process

On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, voted to strengthen America’s refugee screening process by taking steps to prevent terrorists from exploiting it.

The American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act suspends the admission of Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the United States until the nation’s top security officials can certify the integrity of the background checks and are able to declare each refugee, individually, does not pose a threat to the United States.
 

“As a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I have been raising my deep concerns about our government's inability to properly check the backgrounds of refugees entering the United States,” Portman said. “This bill takes important steps to protect Americans by strengthening our refugee screening process so that we can ensure terrorists cannot exploit it to enter our country. This bill isn’t perfect, but in the absence of meaningful action by the Obama Administration, I believe it is critical that Congress take this important first step toward fixing our security screening process and showing Americans that we take this threat seriously. I am disappointed that the Democrats didn’t even allow us to debate this issue.”
 
Last year, Portman questioned Administration officials regarding what steps are being taken to ensure terrorists do not exploit the U.S. Syrian refugee resettlement program. In a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing entitled “The Impact of ISIS on the Homeland and Refugee Resettlement,” Portman called for a thorough review of Department of Homeland Security and State Department vetting procedures to ensure that no terrorists or individuals with links to Islamist extremist groups make it into the United States.
 
The SAFE Act places a moratorium on the admission of these refugees until the following conditions are met:

• The FBI director certifies the background investigation of each refugee.

• The secretary of Homeland Security, along with the FBI director and the director of National Intelligence, certifies to Congress that each refugee is not a security threat to the U.S.