On the recordNovember 19, 2015
I thank the gentleman from South Carolina for the time. Mr. Speaker, ISIS is at war with the United States. The question is: Is America at war with ISIS? I am not so sure, since we don't have a strategy to defeat ISIS, other than if we are attacked, shelter in place, hunker down, get more security guards around the Capitol, use the tunnels rather than walk outside. That is what we were told after the Paris attacks, Mr. Speaker. This legislation is really simple. It has at its core the idea to protect American citizens. It has nothing to do with refugees as far as whether we accept refugees. Our country accepts refugees. We always have. That is clear. It is not the issue of refugees. It is the issue of letting ISIS terrorists get into the country to kill us, Mr. Speaker. Our own security that the gentleman from Mississippi kept talking about tells us we cannot vet Syrian refugees. The FBI Director says that. We can't do it. We are not capable of doing it. One of the reasons is many of these folks have no identity. So we can't do a background check on somebody who has no identity. This legislation says let's take some safeguards. Before we bring in these specific refugees, let's make sure that the people in charge of security certify that this person is not a threat. They can't do it right now. Even the FBI Director says they can't certify. We owe that to the American public. This legislation does that.…
