The government must endeavor to assist Syrian refugees close to their homes, not resettle them thousands of miles away in the U.S., Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), says.
“I believe this country has got to understand, we cannot be the nation that accepts everybody from any war-torn area of the world,” Sessions told Lou Dobbs on the FOX Business Network.
“It just cannot be. And we need to try to help and help these refugees at their homeland, close to home, and try to help them get back home as soon as possible,” he added.
The Obama administration plans to resettle as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. despite recent terrorist attacks and security concerns voiced by Republicans and government officials. According to Sessions the issue is also about jobs and the high numbers of immigrants the U.S. already admits annually.
“American people want a lawful system of immigration. They want one that serves their interest that protects their jobs, their families, their safety, their hospitals, their schools and they have every right to ask for that,” he said.
Sessions added that presidential candidates must be clear about where they stand on those issues.
“They’ve got to talk about it because it’s important to America,” he said. “We admit lawfully now a million a year [for] permanent residency. We have 700,000 right now working in America — came for the purpose of taking a job. We have 500,000 students, many of them work. We have 150,000 refugees and asylees.”
The Alabama lawmaker further referenced a recent government report revealing that more than 400,000 immigrants overstayed their temporary visas last year.
“And as time goes by, we’re going to see more people, if they can get a visa and come to the United States via airplane, just never return, and unless they obtain or charge with a serious crime, they’ll not even be deported,” he said. “There will be no attempt to deport them. It’s an unhealthy, unacceptable situation.”
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