The Senate Judiciary Committee will not mark up Sen. Vitter’s (R-La.) Stop Sanctuary Cities Act (S. 1814) as planned today, Politico reports. Republicans are still working though differences on the measure. Sources on the Hill tell NumbersUSA that once Members agree on language, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is likely to bypass committee and move to consider the bill on the Senate floor.
British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday called for increasing aid to Middle Eastern countries that are hosting Syrian refugees. He urged the support of refugees in countries close to Syria "so they don't make that perilous journey across the seas [to Europe] which has led to such appalling losses of life."
According to Robert Rector, a Heritage Foundation scholar, the president's plan to take in an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees would cost U.S. taxpayers $130 million per year. Over the next 50 years the costs for these additional refugees would add up to $6.5 billion for American taxpayers.
Obama plans to bring 10,000 additional Syrian Refugees to the U.S. this year, yet the FBI has already said they do not have a way to properly vet the refugees, which could cause a threat to national security.
In a recent interview with an Australian news outlet Tim Costello, CEO of the humanitarian organization World Vision, said the best way to handle the European refugee crisis is to secure the refugees in place so they can eventually return to their own countries. He dismissed resettlement as a primary goal because the refugees “want to go back home, not come [to Austrialia], not go to Europe.”
A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the EB-5 Visa program is at risk for fraud and is not providing the economic benefits it was supposed to create. The EB-5 visa program, which allows foreigners to obtain green cards if they invest at least $500,000 in American businesses, was designed to help create jobs and increase foreign investment in the U.S. economy.
White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, announced on Thursday that Pres. Obama wants the U.S. to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year. This is six times more than was admitted into the U.S. this year. The increase comes after the European Union and members of both parties encouraged the Obama administration to do more to aid in the humanitarian crisis.
The NumbersUSA Grade Committee met this week to consider all the immigration statements made by Presidential candidates since we last met. We changed a lot of ratings that led to an overall grade improvement for Rand Paul from a D+ to a C-minus, and a demotion of Chris Christie from C+ to a C and a demotion of Carly Fiorina from a C-minus to a D.
After a consultation with Secretary of State John Kerry concerning refugee plans for fiscal year 2016, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, warned the Obama Administration may seek to bring in tens of thousands of additional refugees beyond its initial proposal of 5,000. He also demanded that Obama prove to the American people that it will protect national security interests before accepting Syrian refugees who could be tied to terrorist groups like ISIS.
Before Congress let out for recess in August, top Republicans drafted a memo to their rank and file members. The memo, which was obtained by Breitbart, suggested to members what they should be discussing during August. Surprisingly, immigration was not included anywhere in this memo.
