AL Congressman: Obama immigration/refugee policies threatens 'tens of thousands' of American
By Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com The Huntsville Times
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Huntsville, AL
President Obama's immigration and refugee policies are endangering the lives of "tens of thousands" of Americans while refugees are coming to the U.S. as if on a "paid vacation," according to U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks.
Brooks, R-Huntsville, made the comments Friday during an appearance on the Dale Jackson Show on WVNN radio in Athens.
Brooks hammered his points in leaning on two pillars of his tenure in Congress: A strict stance on reforming immigration policy and describing the federal debt as the greatest threat to the nation.
Asked by Jackson about the genuine threat level of refugees coming into the country, Brooks responded "How big is big?"
Jackson said the price of one American life was big. Brooks then cited cases involving Muslims in which Americans were killed, starting with the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Brooks also referred to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people. That attack occurred during the presidency of George W. Bush.
"Was that a big issue or a small issue?" Brooks said. "In my mind, (the Boston Marathon bombing) was a big issue because of the death and terror that ensued. Then you have a much bigger issue when you have 9/11. Look at what's happened in Mali where Muslim terrorists are killing people in a hotel in the capital of Mali. And that follows on the heels of what happened in Paris where over 100 Parisians were killed because the French government did not implement sound immigration policies. And so now they've built these enclaves that are infested to some degree with terrorists inside the Parisian community -- either in the city itself or the suburbs. Now the same thing is happening inside the United States of America. We've had a lot of Americans – I don't know the exact number off hand – that have gone to the Middle East to fight on behalf of the Islamic State. So we've got the issue.
"If one life is the standard, then Barack Obama's policies on immigration and refugees is undoubtedly going to cause one American to lose his life as a result and I think you're really talking thousands or tens of thousands who will ultimately lose their lives here in the United States of America if the president continues with this importation of people, some number of which will enjoy killing non-Muslims."
Brooks also criticized Obama's acceptance of refugees from around the world, highlighting the financial costs to the U.S. government.
"People are focused on the terrorist side of it," Brooks said. "We're paying these people to come to the United States of America and we don't have that money. We need to be thinking about the final cost to our country. For example, the 85,000 so-called refugees that Barack Obama wants to pay to come to the United States of America, do you know what the cost is going to be to America's taxpayers just in one calendar year? It would be in the neighborhood of $1 billion. The president has paid 320,000 refugees to come to America over the past four or five years and the cost for that has been a little over $4 billion. That's money we don't have. And we're facing deficits and debt?
"We've got Americans suffering in a lot of different ways that weakens our ability to help those Americans. And we've got struggling American families who are working for a living but they don't make enough money. Well, we're going to have to increase their taxes or their debt burden, depending on how this stuff is paid for. We've got to start taking our financial ability into account as we make these decisions. I'm one of those who thinks we need to quit paying these folks to come here and we're paying them about $15,000 a year in free healthcare, free food, free shelter, free clothing, free transportation – just go down the litany of wealth-transfer programs that these people are entitled to and that answers very quickly why so many of them want to come to the United States of America. We're paying them to come here. A paid vacation."
Click here to listen to the full interview.