The best solution to the refugee crisis in the Middle East is to establish “safe zones” in the region, rather than depopulating the area by relocating people in the U.S. or elsewhere, according to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).
“The more effective and compassionate solution is to resettle the region’s refugees in safe zones in the region rather than flying them into the United States or Europe, or other places around the globe,” Sessions said on the Senate floor Thursday.
The Alabama lawmaker argued against President Obama’s plan to admit thousands of refugees from the Middle East to the United States due to the high cost of refugee resettlement and the national security risks.
“Only this strategy [of regional resettlement] will protect the security of the United States and the West, protect the finances of our country from further debt, and protect the long-term stability and safety of the Middle East itself,” he said. “That’s what our goal should be and our President is not focused on this.”
According to the Alabama senator, while President Obama has been unwilling to listen to alternatives to his plan, it is Obama’s foreign policy that has contributed to the refugee crisis. Sessions said:
We are facing a humanitarian crisis of monumental proportions. In large part, it’s because the president has mismanaged the situation in Syria. He’s the chief executive, he is the commander-in-chief, the military does what he says. And this has not been good. It just has not been. It has caused danger. It has caused innocent people to be killed. It’s caused people to have to flee. And it has also allowed the surge of ISIS and al Qaeda-type terrorist organizations in Syria to be able to create an entire state of their own and to export their terrorism.
Sessions reiterated that the best plan to confront the humanitarian crisis is to create “safe zones” in the region.
“We have got to create safe zones in Syria and other places in the region where people can stay in their homes, and we need to work to end this fighting as soon as possible so people can go back home permanently. It cannot be the position of this country that we just bring in millions of people because of the dangers abroad. It just does not make common sense,” he said.
Additionally, Sessions repeated his call for Congress to use the power of the purse to impose restrictions on Obama’s refugee plans, saying there should be no “blank check.”