On Tuesday night, reports revealed that the Biden administration was looking into bringing over Palestinian refugees from Gaza as the Israel-Hamas conflict rages on. The reaction has been swift and severe. On Thursday morning, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) led many of her colleagues in sending a letter to President Joe Biden expressing concern and demanding answers.
The letter quickly gets to the point. "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," it begins.
In their opening, the senators issue another infuriating reminder, which is that there are Americans still among the hostages that Hamas took on October 7. "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 reads.
While the CBS News report from Tuesday night indicated that there would be a vetting process in place for those being sent to the United States, the letter lays out how that doesn't exactly inspire much confidence:
The potential refugees reportedly need to pass “a series of eligibility, medical, and security screenings” before entering the United States. These proposals ignore that Hamas remains in control of large parts of the Gaza Strip, including the border city of Rafah, where as many as 1.4 million Gazans reside today. 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. We must ensure Gazans with terrorist ties or sympathies are denied admission into theUnited 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. This is especially the case as Hamas terrorists have a long track record of co-mingling with civilian populations in Gaza.
Clearly, there is a complex history about the region that the Biden administration is choosing to ignore when it comes to even just considering such a plan. As we mentioned in Tuesday's coverage, the president is almost certainly trying to capitulate to the radical leftists and antisemites who are part of the base of the Democratic Party.
Also concerning is the support that such people being brought over as refugees might have for Hamas. Last December, a survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research (PCPSR) found that 72 percent of Palestinian respondents, which included those from Gaza and the West Bank, believed that Hamas' attack on October 7 was "correct."
The failure of the Biden administration to secure the southern border also finds its way into the letter. "Border officials have arrested 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists in Fiscal Year 2023, a record setting number that exceeds the total of the last six fiscal years combined," the letter points out, with the senators making clear their grave concerns. "Given your administration’s abject failure at countering the flow of potential terrorists at our border, how can Congress trust your administration to adequately vet the refugees crossing the Egypt-Gaza border, located nearly 6,000 miles away from Washington, D.C.?"
The senators also remind Biden that a policy of accepting these people as refugees would "mark a significant departure from decades of bipartisan precedent."
"We urge you to suspend plans to accept the refugees until you answer the following questions and redirect your efforts to saving theAmericans who are still held hostage in Gaza. Our first obligation should be to rescue our own citizens, not Gazans," the senators close.
With a requested date of May 15, the senators ask Biden to answer the following questions. The questions call to mind how potential Palestinian refugees would be eligible for benefits:
1. How many Gazan refugees does your administration seek to accept into the UnitedStates?
a. How many refugees would be Gazans who have already fled to Egypt?
b. 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 your administration implement a screening mechanism to ensure that those with terrorist links or sympathies are not accepted as refugees into the United States?
a. Please provide details on how your administration will conduct these screenings when U.S. officials do not have an on-the-ground presence in the Gaza Strip.
b. How does the U.S. plan to pay for the cost of transport, screening, medical support, and temporary lodging of these Gazan refugees?
3. Have U.S. officials consulted with the Egyptian government or other regional partners on this policy proposal?
4. Given the necessity of using the Department of Defense to provide temporary housing and support during Operation Allies Welcome, what is the administration's plan for providing temporary housing to Gazan refugees?
a. What are the proposed locations for temporary housing?
b. What are the proposed locations for resettlement?
c. Will the temporary housing displace any military personnel?
In addition to Ernst, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has signed onto the letter, as have other Republican leaders, including Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-WY).
Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Ted Budd (R-NC), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), John Boozman (R-AR), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), John Cornyn (R-TX), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Tim Scott (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Roger Wicker (R-KS) also signed on.
With any luck, the senators will get more answers than the press did when questioning White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the matter.
When asked by a reporter early on in the briefing how many people the administration looks to relocate, and whether or not they'll actually assist in bringing people here, Jean-Pierre began and ended her response in typical fashion, which is "that we just don’t have anything to announce at this time." She also sang the praises of Biden on the issue, including how "this administration continues to be the largest contributor of humanitarian assistance." She left out how such assistance has been taken by Hamas, and that the Biden administration’s priority of building a Gaza pier costs double than previous estimates and puts American troops in harm's way.
She even likened hostage negotiations with aid, offering "that’s why this hostage deal is so critical besides, of course, getting the hostages home but also creating an opportunity to get that more additional humanitarian aid in and would lead to a ceasefire."
Jean-Pierre did at least indicate they're "evaluating it" when it comes to bringing people over.
CBS's @Weijia Jiang: “As the administration considers bringing Palestinians here to the U.S. as refugees, do you know how many people that the U.S. hopes to relocate? And secondly, given the challenges getting in and out of Gaza, will the U.S. assist in physically bringing… pic.twitter.com/Fuz1X7QiRA
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 1, 2024