Obama, GOP escalate dispute over Syrian refugees

CNN notes that Ryan is under pressure from conservative GOP lawmakers to pass legislation defunding the refugee resettlement program and attach it to important spending bills.

“The American refugee laws are important. It’s important that we have a refugee system in place,” Ryan said. “We respect that, but we think it’s simply prudent that for this particular program in this particular situation that we be better guarded against any possible infiltration.

“We’ve assembled a taskforce starting Saturday to consider legislation as quickly as possible,” he added. “We’re meeting every day and we will bring legislation forward.”

To assuage lawmakers’ concerns about the security aspects of the refugee resettlement program, the administration has shared details of its refugee security screening system with members of Congress.

The administration also asserted its executive authority on immigration issues, dismissing threats by Republican governors to block Syrian refugees from their states.

“While states and local authorities have an important consultative role, this program is administered by the federal government,” said one official.

Administration officials described the screening process to lawmakers, explaining that the screening begins with the UN in refugee camps and includes extensive interviews by U.S. officials and biometric checks.

Lavinia Limón, head of the U.S. committee for refugees and immigrants, described the process of security checks to which refugees are subjected. She explained that not all the details of the process can be publicly discussed because they are confidential.

Refugees are referred to U.S. screening by the UN, and are then subjected to background and other checks by several U.S. intelligence agencies. If the refugee passes the screening by the intelligence agencies, he or she is interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security, which makes the decision on whether or not to approve the application.

The process takes about two years from a UN referral to an approval by DHS – and during these two year the refugee is subject to additional periodic screening. The intelligence community and DHS pay special attention to men aged 18 to 65.

The United States has so far resettled 2,200 Syrian refugees.

Since February 2011, the war in Syrian has forced an estimated 11.6 million people from their homes – four million have left Syria, and 5.6 million have been internally displaced.

In September, the administration said that 10,000 Syrian refugees would be accepted in the next fiscal year. They will be admitted on top of the 70,000 refugees from around the world which the United States accepts for resettlement each year.

The State Department said that about 15,200 Syrian refugees are currently waiting processing by U.S. agencies.