WASHINGTON—The assault on Paris has sparked widespread calls from congressional Republicans to end or limit U.S. refugee admissions from Syria, with some threatening to use critical spending legislation as leverage just weeks from a must-pass deadline.
The issue looms as a sudden and unexpected challenge to new House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who faces a Dec. 11 deadline to pass a package of spending bills or risk a partial government shutdown. The legislation was already tricky because of the potential for policy fights on issues like Planned Parenthood and the environment, and now some conservatives want to add language requiring congressional approval of any refugee plan.
That could allow Republicans to block President Barack Obama’s goal of bringing 10,000 more Syrian refugees to the U.S. during the current budget year.
“Filling your country up with people who have a completely different belief system ... and expecting they won’t rise up against their benefactor is foolish,” Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a leading immigration hardliner, said in an interview. He said that no refugees should be permitted into the U.S. from Syria “unless they be Christian refugees that are facing genocide,” and said that the spending bill should contain language specifying as much.
A number of GOP presidential candidates and Senate Republicans issued similar calls, pointing to indications that one of the perpetrators in Friday’s attacks might have entered France with a Syrian passport. Some called for a halt in all refugee admissions.
“At this time, President Obama should stop any refugees from coming into our country until we have assurances that effective safeguards are in place to prevent radical terrorists from using the system to their advantage,” said Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican.
