Senator David Perdue on Wednesday, spoke on the Senate floor about the actions President Donald J. Trump has taken to strengthen the refugee screening process.
He said, “I would like to speak momentarily to the President’s recent executive order to strengthen our refugee screening process that he thinks will protect Americans, and I agree with him.
The Minority Leader’s ‘tear-jerking’ performance over the past weekend belonged at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, not in a serious discussion of what it takes to keep America safe.
Folks back home are fed up with members of this body stirring up global hysteria to score political points.
Let’s be clear. This temporary action is not a so-called Muslim ban and no Muslim ban has been put into place.
As a matter of fact, the five countries most heavily populated with Muslims around the world were not even included in this temporary pause on movement. In fact, almost 90 percent of the world’s Muslim population is not even remotely affected by this temporary pause.
The seven countries included that were included in President Trump’s executive order – Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen – were included for specific reasons. Each of these nations were previously identified by President Obama as posing national security threats to the United States. This is not targeted at any religion. It is simply a temporary pause on the movement of individuals from nations of concern in order to assess whether or not our current screening system is in the best possible shape to protect Americans.
I’m apoplectic that members of the Minority Party – and the former President of the United States – would actually say or imply otherwise. Their current encouragement of civil unrest and disobedience is both deplorable and unacceptable. The failed foreign policy of President Obama in Syria, and the broader Middle East, has made the world more dangerous than any time in my lifetime and helped to create the current refugee crisis around the world.
We are at war with ISIS. We know that they have identified and targeted our refugee system as a point of weakness. They have already exploited the refugee systems of Eastern Europe, carrying out terrorist attacks and killing innocent people. It would be malfeasance for my president not to take action and immediately review our current screening process to ensure we are helping those in need and keeping terrorists out.
This temporary pause will allow us to assess the capabilities of our screening process and strengthen it as needed. Moving forward, the implementation of this temporary pause must be both efficient and effective. Also, during this screening review period, we should avoid overreacting to these responsible steps that are taken to prioritize the protection of all Americans.
It’s totally irresponsible and ridiculous for the Minority Leader, members of this body, the former President, President Obama, and others to suggest this is anything other than a rational, responsible step to keep Americans safe and deal with the ISIS threat once and for all.”