Biden plan to resettle Palestinians in USA gets pushback from Republican senators

President Joe Biden has plans to bring Palestinian refugees into the country, prompting a letter of concern written by several Republican members of the Senate.

“Your administration’s reported plan to accept Gazan refugees poses a national security risk to the United States. With more than a third of Gazans supporting the Hamas militants, we are not confident that your administration can adequately vet this high-risk population for terrorist ties and sympathies before admitting them into the United States. We are further worried that accepting Gazan refugees might cause a crisis at the Egypt-Gaza border, leading to chaos that would only empower Iran-backed Hamas. We are also frustrated that your administration is pushing ahead with a plan to evacuate Gazans from the Strip when there are still American citizens held hostage by Hamas. We demand that your administration cease planning for accepting Gazan refugees until you adequately answer our concerns and focus your attention instead on securing the release of U.S. hostages held by Hamas,” the letter said.

“U.S. and allied officials have very little access to Gazans living in the area, making it nearly impossible to conduct thorough vetting before admitting them into our country,” the senators said. “We must ensure Gazans with terrorist ties or sympathies are denied admission into the United States – no easy feat, given the fact that the Gazans were the ones who voted Hamas into power in 2006. Without thorough vetting, your administration may inadvertently accept terrorists posing as refugees into the interior.

“Your reported plans to increase the number of Palestinian refugees mark a significant departure from decades of bipartisan precedent. Both Democrat and Republican administrations have historically accepted very few Palestinian refugees, who make up less than 0.2 percent of all refugees admitted into the United States since 2001. We urge you to suspend plans to accept the refugees until you answer the following questions and redirect your efforts to saving the Americans who are still held hostage in Gaza. Our first obligation should be to rescue our own citizens, not Gazans,” the senators said.

The senators asked for answers from Biden to a list of questions by May 15:

1. How many Gazan refugees does the administration seek to accept into the United States?
   1. How many refugees would be Gazans who have already fled to Egypt?
   2. How many refugees would be Gazans still located in the Gaza Strip?
2. Given the widespread Hamas control over the Gaza Strip, as well as the dense fog of war due to the ongoing conflict, how will the administration implement a screening mechanism to ensure that those with terrorist links or sympathies are not accepted as refugees into the United States?
   1. Details on how the administration will conduct these screenings when U.S. officials do not have an on-the-ground presence in the Gaza Strip.
   2. How does the U.S. plan to pay for the cost of transport, screening, medical support, and temporary lodging of these Gazan refugees?

The letter was signed by Senators Joni Ernst, Mitch McConnell, John Thune, John Barasso, Steve Daines, M. Michael Rounds, Ted Budd, Cynthia Loomis, Rand Paul, Michael Lee, John Boozman, Pete Ricketts, John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, Roger Marshall, Charles Grassley, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, Cynthia Hyde-Smith, Marsha Blackburn, Thom Tillis, Rick Scott, Deb Fischer, Ted Cruz, Tommy Tuberville, Kevin Cramer, Lindsey Graham, James Lankford, Bill Hagerty, Tim Scott, Katie Boyd Britt, Jerry Moran, and Roger Wicker.