WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers defied President Barack Obama on Wednesday and laid out plans to tighten screening of Syrian refugees after last week’s Paris attacks, in a political fight that challenges America’s view of itself as a refuge for downtrodden immigrants.
Concerned about possible attacks in the United States after Islamic State killed 129 people in the French capital on Friday, the Republican chairman of a U.S. House of Representatives security panel proposed additional scrutiny of refugees fleeing Syria or Iraq seeking to enter the United States.
The White House quickly threatened a veto, saying the measure “would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world.”
Reports that at least one of the Paris attackers was believed to have slipped into Europe among migrants registered in Greece prompted several Western countries to begin questioning their willingness to take in refugees.
Under Republican-backed legislation introduced in the House, no refugees from war-torn Iraq and Syria could enter the United States until top-level American security officials assure Congress they do not imperil national security.
Americans are “uneasy and unsettled” over the events in Paris, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican.
“We are a compassionate nation. We always have been and we always will be. But we also must remember that our first priority is to protect the American people,” Ryan said.
Speaking at an Asia-Pacific summit in Manila, Obama accused Republicans of “hysteria and exaggeration of risk” in trying to make it more difficult for refugees to enter the United States.
“Slamming the door in the face of refugees would betray our deepest values. That’s not who we are. And it’s not what we’re going to do,” Obama wrote later on Twitter.
Obama stood by a plan the White House announced in September to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States within a year.
Refugees from the 4-year-old civil war in Syria who are seeking U.S. entry already undergo a rigorous screening process that can take between 18 and 24 months.
The House is due to start debate on Thursday on a bill proposed by Michael McCaul, Republican chairman of the House’s Homeland Security Committee, that would make it even more difficult for those Syrians, as well as for Iraqi refugees.
Under the bill, the U.S. Homeland Security secretary, and the directors of the FBI and national intelligence would all have to report to Congress that the refugees do not threaten national security.
The Senate, where Republicans hold a smaller majority than in the House, would also have to approve any legislation on refugees for it to take effect.
McCaul’s bill faced opposition from Democrats as well as some Republicans, raising the possibility it might not pass the House.
Some of the most conservative House Republicans backed an amendment that would put a six-month moratorium on admitting refugees from Syria and Iraq. Other conservatives complained the bill did not specifically cut off funding for the refugees’ resettlement.
Ryan said Republican efforts to heighten the screening of refugees would not discriminate against Muslims, who are in the vast majority in Syria and Iraq.
But Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told a hearing there was a national security reason for prioritizing Christian refugees, saying: “At least these Christians wouldn’t be potential terrorists.”
The debate over refugees has challenged the idea that America is a nation always open to immigrants in trouble.
“We are, over our history, a country that’s made up of immigrants, sometimes some more welcome than others. These (Syrians) are, for the most part, people fleeing for their lives,” said Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence Committee member who criticized Republican efforts to intensify scrutiny of refugees.
“I think as a Jew I have a certain perspective,” Schakowsky said, recounting the story of the St. Louis, a refugee ship turned away from Cuba and Florida in 1939 and sent back to Europe, where hundreds of its Jewish passengers were killed in the Holocaust.
The Paris attacks have hardened rhetoric on the U.S. presidential campaign trail.
Republican candidate Jeb Bush called for an increased U.S. troop presence on the ground in Iraq as part of a global coalition to take on Islamic State. His comments may lead to comparisons to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq ordered by his brother, former President George W. Bush.