WASHINGTON, D.C.–On Wednesday, Representative Mark Sanford announced the need to hold off on allowing refugees into not only South Carolina but also the United States.
“I think we need to press the pause button on the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the United States until we can put the necessary measures and protocols in place to vet them,” stated Sanford. “This is not an irreversible course but a prudent step, given the plausibility of ISIS members infiltrating refugee populations as a way to come into America.”
In September 2015, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year. He also said the U.S. would try to eliminate some bureaucratic hurdles toward entering the country.
It’s a move Sanford adamantly disagrees with.
“The President’s plan to plow ahead is tone deaf and is at odds with what I am hearing both in Congress and at home,” stated Sanford. “For this reason, I have signed on as a cosponsor to both the Babin and McCaul-Hudson bills designed to stop domestic resettlement activities here in America until the American public can be assured that allowing refugees to enter the country does not wind up meaning allowing ISIS to do so.”
On November 9th, Berkeley County Council passed a resolution calling on all South Carolina public officials to immediately cease and desist from the placement of refugees anywhere within South Carolina until the state legislature convenes and passes legislation reflecting the will of the people.
A week later, Governor Nikki Haley sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to prohibit the resettlement of Syrian refugees in South Carolina.
“It is my understanding that while our national security agencies are working tirelessly to vet potential refugees, there remains gaps in available intelligence for those fleeing Syria,” Haley wrote in the letter.
To read the letter in its entirety, click here.
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