HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIRMAN: NO COMMITMENT FROM PAUL RYAN TO BLOCK IMPORT OF MUSLIM

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIRMAN: NO COMMITMENT FROM PAUL RYAN TO BLOCK IMPORT OF MUSLIM REFUGEES

by JULIA HAHN
16 Nov 2015
Washington D.C.
4,293 comments

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) reveals that conservative House members have received no commitment from Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that he would in any way try to curb the nation’s importation of Muslims on visas.

By the end of the year, Congress will have to pass a government funding measure to appropriate funds for all federal operations. The Boehner-Obama debt deal, backed by Ryan, established the spending levels— but Congress still has to pass the actual spending bills which contain the money.

Included in this package will be funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement and other refugee-related operations, thus allowing the President to carry out his resettlement plans. In order to stop the President from carrying out these plans, Congress would have to include restrictions in the year-end funding bill that would be advanced by Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The Paris atrocity has sparked fresh calls for blocking federal refugee resettlement. For instance, Congressman Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
Tweets:

Rep. Jeff Duncan ✔ @RepJeffDuncan
How's that Syrian refugee resettlement look now? How about that mass migration into Europe? Terrorism is alive & well in the world. #No
4:33 PM - 13 Nov 2015
452 452 Retweets 452 452 likes


Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Tweeted:

Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
And we will prosecute any and all companies found to be in violation of the law: https://www.tedcruz.org/cruz-immigration-plan/ …
Follow
Ted Cruz ✔ @tedcruz
It is lunacy to be bringing refugees into the country who may be terrorists trying to murder Americans: https://www.tedcruz.org/cruz-immigration-plan/ …
12:32 PM - 13 Nov 2015
1,024 1,024 Retweets 808


One day prior to the attack, Senator Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called for prohibitions on funding for refugee resettlement in a USA Today op-ed calling on Congress to slash visa allocations:

Congress should immediately begin to move popular immigration reforms that would be backed by overwhelming majorities of voters, including… blocking the president from using federal funds to unilaterally expand the costly refugee resettlement program.

Similarly, prior to the Paris attack, Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) — who has introduced a new bill that would pause refugee resettlement— told Breitbart News:

European media sources confirm that ISIS has already infiltrated some refugee communities. President Obama’s own FBI, DHS and DNI directors admitted that we cannot properly vet Syrian refugees for national security risks. Rather than giving the Administration a blank check that puts the safety and security of the American people at risk, Congress should stand up and use the budget process to stop this dangerous and costly program.

However, a recent interview with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan suggests that it may be an uphill climb to get the House’s new Speaker to include such a measure in the year-end funding bill. Jordan told Breitbart that the Freedom Caucus received no commitment from Ryan that he reduce visa issuances to Muslim countries.

This admission is significant because Jordan’s Freedom Caucus played a key role in installing Paul Ryan— who has a two decade long history of pushing open borders immigration policies— as House Speaker. By Ryan’s own terms, he would have withdrawn his consideration of the Speakers position if he did not receive the support of the Freedom Caucus members.

Breitbart asked Jordan if Freedom Caucus demanded any support for voter-supported immigration curbs in exchange for their support of Ryan— the answer was no. Breitbart asked specifically about refugee resettlement: “Has he [Ryan] made any guarantees about advancing Brian Babin’s bill [to pause] refugee resettlement?”

Jordan replied, “He [Ryan] didn’t talk about that, no.”

Breitbart followed up, pressing Jordan again about whether they had plans to address refugee resettlement in the omnibus spending bill. Breitbart News explained, “In the omnibus spending bill, right now we’re writing a blank check to Office of Refugee Resettlement to resettle all of President Obama’s Syrian refugees.”

In response, Jordan did not say whether they intended to address refugee resettlement in the spending package and simply declared, “the House Freedom Caucus is going to be opposed to this bill, we’re all going to vote against this bill.”

In addition to disclosing that he did not get any commitment from Ryan to block the importation of Muslim refugees prior to voting to elect him as Speaker, Jordan also admitted that he was entirely unfamiliar with the U.S. immigration policy that has dramatically impacted the lives of his own constituents.

When Breitbart News asked Jordan about the vast number of Muslim migrants that have resettled in Ohio and recent reports that document how more than 20,000 girls in Ohio are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation as a result, Jordan replied, “In Ohio? Wow.”

Jordan also told Breitbart that he was undecided whether Muslim migration into the United States ought to be reduced. When Breitbart asked if Jordan thought the nation’s policy of annually importing a quarter of a million Muslim migrants into the United States ought to be curbed, Jordan replied, “I’d have to look at that closer. I have not looked at that particular.”

As Breitbart News has previously documented, every year the United States voluntarily imports more than a quarter of a million– or 280,000– Muslim migrants. This number includes more than 100,000 migrants who were permanently resettled with green cards, more than 100,000 as temporary students or workers, and almost 40,000 as lifetime refugees and asylees.

This means that each year, the U.S. admits a number of Muslim migrants larger in size than the entire population of Dayton, Ohio.

The Middle East represents the fastest-growing bloc of immigrants admitted into the country on visas, according to a census data-based report authored by the Center for Immigration Studies. Student visas for Middle Eastern countries have similarly grown enormously, including 16-fold increase in Saudi students since 9/11. Arabic is now the most common language spoken by refugees, and 91.4 percent of recent refugees from the Middle East are on food stamps. As a result of unbridled Muslim immigration, half a million U.S. girls are now at risk of suffering the barbaric and anti-Western tradition of Female Genital Mutilation. Sen. Jeff Sessions has also documented how much of the domestic terror activity in the United States has been caused, in large, part by the nation’s federal policy of importing migrants from Muslim countries that encourage anti-Western sentiment.

The U.S. admits more than two times more Muslim migrants each year than there are Jim Jordan voters in Ohio’s fourth Congressional district— and roughly half of these migrants will be able to apply for citizenship. According to Pew, only 11% of Muslims vote Republican or lean-Republican. However, throughout the course of the interview, Jordan admitted he was unaware of the visa gusher that has allowed hundreds of thousands and has transformed pockets of his own state of Ohio.

When asked if the United States should continue issuing a quarter of a million visas to Muslim migrants, Jordan pivoted back to his belief that we need to “follow the law”— apparently unaware that it is precisely because of federal law that these Muslim migrants are issued visas for entry into the United States.

Breitbart News: Do you think immigration levels should be reduced?

Jordan: I think we need to secure the border, I think we need to reform the legal immigration system—

Breitbart: What does “reform” mean? Does that mean increase?

Jordan: If people want to come here for the right reasons, want to learn our language, and be a part of our culture, then we need to make it work well for those people…

Breitbart: “Legally, every three years we add another population [the size] of Los Angeles [is added to the U.S.] through visa issuances. Do you think that should be reduced, or do you think it should be increased?'”

Jordan: I haven’t looked closely at that, Julia. What I think should happen is we should follow the law.”

Breitbart: “But that is the law… through [predominantly] visa issuances every three years, we import another population the size of Los Angeles.

Jordan: “I would have to look closer at it.”

Breitbart: “Because Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA) has taken a position saying that anyone running for the presidency should [pledge to] reduce immigration, which is a nine in ten issue with Republican voters.”

Jordan: “I think my position has always been follow the law. That’s step one. And then where we need to change the law to make the system work better for people who, like I said, want to learn our language, want to be a part of our culture, want to come here and chase the American dream, you’ve got to do it legally. That to me is, that’s that bottom line.”

Breitbart: My question is— because this is all legal— in Columbus, Ohio… you have the second largest population of Somali refugees [second to Minneapolis, Minnesota]. Equality Now just did a report that there’s 20,000 girls in Ohio that are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation—

Jordan: “In Ohio? Wow.”

Breitbart: “—as a result of unbridled Muslim migration. Every year we import a quarter of a million Muslim migrants— and I guess the question that a lot of our readership wants to know— is in terms of visa issuances, do you think that number is too high? Should that number be reduced?

Jordan: “I’d have to look at that closer. I have not looked at that particular. Like I said, what I’ve been focused on is following the law.”

It might seem surprising that a sitting U.S. Congressman would assert that, “we need to reform our legal immigration,” while at the same time conceding that he does not know the basic aspects of U.S. immigration law— including how the federal policy of issuing visas to Muslim migrants is impacting his own state.

However, Jordan is not alone in asserting the need to reform federal policies whose details he seems unfamiliar with. Jordan’s comments came just a few days before Freedom Caucus co-founder Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) told South Carolina radio host Bob McLain, “Honestly I have no idea what the number of legal green cards [issued annually] is”— even though Mulvaney’s website suggests immigration rates should be increased even higher. On his website, however, Mulvaney writes, despite the nation’s record high visas dispensations, that it’s still too difficult for foreign nationals to gain entry into the United States: “The simple truth is our immigration system is broken… it’s too difficult to enter America the right way,” Mulvaney writes.

It is interesting that despite declaring this, Mulvaney would then admit that he has “no idea” how many people “enter America the right way.”

Mulvaney’s apparent view that immigration levels ought to be increased is shared by presidential aspirant and donor class favorite, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). While Cruz has pledged to crack down on refugee resettlement and has pledged that he will “halt” any increases in immigration, Sen. Rubio has actively expressed his support for expanding Muslim migration— both through declaring his openness for accepting Middle Eastern refugees, as well as introducing legislation, such as the I-Squared bill, which would substantially increase immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Jordan told Breitbart News that the purpose of the Freedom Caucus was to represent the “countless number of Americans who feel like this town has forget them. Our job is to remember them and fight for them.”

According to Rasmussen, 65% of conservative voters think we should allow precisely zero Middle Eastern refugees into the United States. Under current policy, in the next five years, the U.S. will bring in about 200,000 refugees and asylees from Muslim countries— with as many as 150,000 of those refugees coming from the Middle East. In the next five years, the U.S. will permanently resettle more than half a million migrants from Muslim countries.

Paul Ryan, however, has expressed a very different view of the job of a U.S. lawmaker—declaring that his job was to put himself in the shoes of foreign nationals who don’t live in the United States, but would like to:

Put yourself in another person’s shoes, which if you’re in elected office, that’s what you kind of have to do that almost every single day. The job we have– and what we do is we take different people’s perspectives. The gentleman from India who’s waiting for his green card. The DREAMer who is waiting… And then we come up with the answer to try and solve this problem. That’s basically what we do in our jobs.

Traditionally, the year end funding bill will be wrapped up by mid December. That means conservative lawmakers who want to stop Muslim refugee resettlement have just weeks to convince Speaker Ryan and Mitch McConnell to include language that prohibits the funding of the President’s refugee resettlement operation.

Breitbart News reached out to Speaker Ryan’s office and asked if Ryan will include language in the omnibus spending bill to block the resettlement of refugees from Syria and other Muslim countries. Ryan’s office refused to respond to Breitbart‘s request for comment.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...slim-refugees/