Rep. Kaptur Issues Statement on Vote to Strengthen Refugee Screening Procedures
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) issued the following statement today after voting in favor of H.R. 4083, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015. Rep. Kaptur was one of 47 Democrats to support the bill, which passed by a vote of 289 to 137.
“The first sworn duty of Congress is to protect the American people against all enemies foreign and domestic. In view of the heightened global threat level due to the terrorist attacks in Paris, we must ensure that our migration screening systems are as rigorous and lock tight as possible. Europe faces unique difficulties in protecting its borders and rooting out terrorists, whether homegrown or from beyond their borders,even attempting to transit our borders through Europe as occurred leading up to the attacks on September 11th 2001. It is therefore vital that the U.S. work in concert with its allies to assure a rigorous, seamless system of identity verification while maintaining our heritage as an open, compassionate society for freedom loving people, especially those fleeing from danger.
“Strengthening our screening process with an additional check valve does not diminish our resolve to help those refugees who have been driven from their homeland by war and instability. It provides an additional level of assurance as we proceed with efforts to help shelter the victims of our enemies. It will be important now for the agencies involved to coordinate to ensure that we continue to be able to provide shelter to those refugees who do satisfy the refugee requirements.”
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