Republicans reject Obama’s plans to resettle Syrian refugees

A group of US lawmakers and state governors from the Republican Party have criticized President Barack Obama’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees in the country, following reports that one of the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks was allegedly a Syrian refugee.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives in Congress are preparing legislation that threatens to suspend a White House refugee program for Syrians.

Moreover, 26 governors, including one Democrat, have warned they would try to block the refugees’ entry into their states.

However, under federal law, state governors have little power to block their entry into the country or interfere with federal resettlement programs.

Paul Ryan, the new House speaker, escalated the political row that has been growing since Friday’s Paris attacks by announcing a "pause" in Syrian refugees coming to the US.

Ryan, a US Representative for Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, assembled a task force on Tuesday to work on legislation dealing with Syrian refugees that the House could vote on as soon as Thursday.

"Our nation has always been welcoming but we cannot let terrorists take advantage of our compassion," Ryan told reporters after a closed-door House GOP meeting.

"This is a moment where it's better to be safe than to be sorry, so we think the prudent, the responsible thing is to take a pause in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population," he added.

Republican leaders in the US Senate are also looking at the issue, but no decisions have been made, according to one Senate aide.

US presidential candidate and GOP Senator Ted Cruz from Texas made a similar case, saying that "anyone with an ounce of common sense would say 'no, we shouldn't be bringing in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees.'"

Cruz told reporters in Charleston, South Carolina, this weekend that he would admit all persecuted Christians from Syria to the US but no persecuted Muslims.

The rhetoric from Republicans has angered Obama, who seemed to take particular exception to the sentiments of Cruz -- though not by name.

“When individuals say we should have a religious test and that only Christians, proven Christians should be admitted, that’s offensive,” Obama said in the Philippines, where he is attending a regional summit.

“I cannot think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than some of the rhetoric that’s been coming out of here during the course of this debate,” the president said.

Both Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio's parents fled Cuba and entered the US as immigrants.

“Some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution; that’s shameful," Obama said in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

The United States has accepted nearly 2,200 Syrian refugees since the conflict began there in March 2011, according to government data -- and that number is expected to grow significantly in the current year.

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