Sen. Johnson Joins 34 Senators in Demanding Biden Stop Plan to Accept Gazan Refugees; DeSantis Takes Aim at Biden for Accepting Palestinian Refugees from Gaza

Sen. Johnson Joins 34 Senators in Demanding Biden Stop Plan to Accept Gazan Refugees:

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), joined U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and 33 of their Senate GOP colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden following reports that the Biden administration is planning to accept Gazan refugees into the United States. The senators demanded the President stop his plan, citing concerns of potential terrorist ties, and instead focus his efforts on rescuing Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

“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 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 senators wrote.

A recent poll found that over 70% of Gazans viewed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as the “correct” decision.

They pointed out that, “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. This is especially the case as Hamas terrorists have a long track record of co-mingling with civilian populations in Gaza.”

“Unfortunately, the risk of terrorists entering our homeland is no hypothetical matter. 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. Apprehended terrorists include a Hezbollah fighter who intended “to make a bomb” and was headed for New York. 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 lawmakers continued. —>READ MORE HERE

DeSantis takes aim at Biden for accepting Palestinian refugees from Gaza:

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday bashed President Joe Biden and his administration for accepting Palestinian refugees from the war-torn Gaza Strip.

“There was a report out that Joe Biden is contemplating importing a bunch of Palestinian Arabs from the Gaza Strip into the United States of America. And I didn’t even think Biden was crazy enough to do this,” DeSantis said during a Hardee County press conference.

DeSantis was seemingly referring to a Tuesday CBS News report that the “Biden administration is considering bringing in certain Palestinians to the U.S. as refugees.” CBS reported that the move would “offer a permanent safe haven” to some fleeing the region “who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents.”

DeSantis has been increasing his rhetoric in recent weeks against Palestinians in Gaza and protesters who sympathize with them, equating the population in Gaza, which is reportedly nearly half children, with the Hamas militant organization that governs it. (Hamas has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department since 1997.)

On Wednesday, for instance, DeSantis said that to help Palestinians in Gaza relocate to the United States would mean importing “blood feuds to this country.” He evoked reports of rapes and executions during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, and referenced an account from an Israeli first responder that a baby was found in an oven.

In response, Samir Kakli, the president of the South Florida Muslim Federation, said in a statement to the Herald/Times that DeSantis’ rhetoric was fanning “the flames of hatred against Arabs and Muslims.” —>READ MORE HERE

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