Monday on Sirius XM radio’s “The Dean Obeidallah Show,” the second Muslim-American to be elected to the House of Representatives, Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN), said the Republican bill to increase the scrutiny for Syrian refugees coming to the Untied States that passed with 47 House Democrats voting for it was “draconian” and rooted in a “bigotry.”
Carson said, “I think that the Republicans in their bill, they want to shut down the resettlement of any refugees from Syria or Iraq and really hinder and handicap any future settlements. I think the bill was very draconian, at least in my mind. My hope is tht instead of shutting down the refugee program I think we should look at the record so far. Since two years ago, I think 2013, last November, about 2,200 refugees have been admitted to the United States, and half of those were children. So you have families that were driven out of their homes by the disgraceful war in Syria, and ISIS’ or Daesh’s, brutal rule, and a quarter of those refugees are over 60. So they’ve proven to be law abiding citizens and we’ve not had any problems. I think what’s taking place is a deep kind of bigotry that is evolving and hardening into the political landscape.”
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