Nothing New: Obama Shut Down the Iraq Refugee Program, and Religious Questions Are Always Part of the Process

Friday - November 20, 2015

RUSH: Mark in Naples, Florida.  It's great to have you here.  Hello, sir.

CALLER:  Thank you very much for taking my call.

RUSH:  Yes, sir.

CALLER:  My concern is, with all these governors who have not allowed Syrians to come in, I applaud them for that, but where is the logic in drawing a parallel between when the Cubans were a threat to us, we closed our borders and didn't allow refugees from Cuba and just recently opened it. But, you know, why is it that Hillary is saying this isn't American, this isn't who we are?  That is who we are.  When someone poses a threat, we close our borders, or that's how we should be doing it.  Is that a correct parallel?

RUSH:  You're right.  That is why I have spent so much time this week going over the actual history of immigration.  Let me repeat it.  Perfect opportunity here with this question.  By the way, the real question you asked is what is Hillary Clinton talking about when she talks about that's not who we are?  Obama's the same way.  It's just words.  It's Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attempting to tell you that liberalism is the American way, and it isn't, and it never has been, and it's not gonna be, if any of us have anything to say about it. 

Once again, folks, 1924 to 1965, you know how much immigration there was?  Zip.  We shut it down.  We closed the borders.  Can you imagine doing that today?  The next thing you're asking, "Well, why, Rush?"  Because we had just immigrated, allowed to immigrate millions from Europe, war torn Europe, and it took time to assimilate them.  "What does that mean, Rush?"  Well, it means that when they got here, we had to teach them how to be Americans.  They wanted to be Americans.  They maintained their original identity of course and culture, but they wanted to become Americans. 

Well, that takes time.  America was a distinct culture.  It was unlike any other place in the country.  The difference is those immigrants wanted to be.  And even during the days of no immigration, we had anti-immigration protests.  There were anarchists doing domestic terror attacks in this country, and we deported them.  We found out, we deported them.  We've done everything that Hillary and Obama say, "That's not who we are.  That's not America.  That's not our value."  Everything they're saying, we've done it.  We have religious tests, statutory, required, United States federal law religious tests for refugees, and we have routinely employed them, the religious tests.  There's nothing being proposed that we have not done in the past to defend and protect the country, particularly in times of attack or war.

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RUSH:  I'm gonna tell you something you may not know.  Barack Obama closed the Iraqi refugee program for six months back in 2011, just shut it down for six months.  It has been done.  I give you details when we come back, as I'm sure you don't know this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A story here from The Federalist.  And I don't know how many people actually know this.  "Although the Obama administration currently refuses to temporarily pause its Syrian refugee resettlement program in the United States, the State Department in 2011 stopped processing Iraq refugee requests for six months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence that several dozen terrorists from Iraq had infiltrated the United States via the refugee program."

Now, I had this in the Stack, I didn't get to it yesterday.  It's a November 20th, 2013, report by ABC News, our old buddy Brian Ross.  "An ABC News investigation of the flawed US refugee screening system, which was overhauled two years ago, showed that Alwan was mistakenly allowed into the US and resettled in the leafy southern town of Bowling Green, Kentucky." One of the terrorists that got through.  The point is that back in 2011 Iraqi refugees were being settled in America and some actual Iraqi terrorists made it through, and so we suspended for six months the entire refugee program. 

Now, The Federalist story that I have here doesn't mention it, but Obama also failed to tell Congress about pausing the program.  The ABC story has it.  "In the wake of the Kentucky case," that I just told you about, "the US halted the refugee program for Iraqis for six months, a fact that the Obama administration did not disclose to Congress at the time.  This according to officials talking to ABC News about the 2013 investigation."  And maybe he didn't tell Hillary, either. 

Here's the point, folks, and I'm sure most of you have figured it out now.  There is precedent in this country for everything that is being suggested in dealing with the Syrian refugees.  We had suspended immigration from 1944 to 1965.  I mean, zip, zero, nada.  We deported terrorists who were here as illegal immigrants in the early twenties, anarchist groups.  We've deported, we have suspended, and now we've learned we have a religious test for these refugees.  Stop and think about it.  It's a federal statutory requirement.  But we couldn't have a refugee program without a religious aspect.  I know some of you are saying, "Wait a minute, Rush, wait a minute. We have freedom of religion and people can't be asked about religion. Like Obama said, there's not a religious test."  Oh, but there is.  Stop and think about it.  Refugees, in order to get into the country, when things are running normally, and nothing with Obama would qualify as normal, they are asked why they want asylum.

They are forced, they are required to explain where they're from and what their religion is and other things to explain why they're fleeing their homes.  And the number one reason given by refugees for fleeing is religious persecution.  Well, sorry, we have to ask them, what is your religion?  
We have to vet them.  They tell us what's going on where they live.  That's the reason they're seeking asylum.  We, ostensibly, check it out.  So if somebody says "I'm from religion A and members of religion A are being persecuted in my homeland of San Cordoba," well, then we go check out what's happening in San Cordoba, and we find out if there is indeed religious persecution or if the applicant is just lying to us. 

So all of this that's being suggested, it's all been done before.  Yet Obama and Hillary are running around talking about, "This isn't who we are. These are not our values."  What values, anyway?  You know, I'm almost to the point of saying Obama's and Hillary's values are not the values of the majority of this country, and certainly aren't the values we associate with the founding of the country.  What values?  But even now learning about Iraq, Obama, when we screwed up, when six Iraqi terrorists beat our system, we shut it down for six months.  We could easily do it now.  There's ample cause.  The numbers of people fleeing Syria, our inability to vet them. 

There's ample cause to suspend it and make sure we vet and investigate the people that we have admitted so far.  It would only be common sense in terms national security and safety, not to mention the money involved.  I saw also that it costs $63,000 per refugee to settle them.  And who's paying that, folks?  You are.  Of course, it's kind of a crazy thing 'cause I don't know that anybody's paying it.  We're almost $20 trillion in debt.