Rep. Brian Babin on Refugee Programs: “ISIS has promised to exploit them”

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Frank Gaffney: One facet of the war of ideas which has not received anything like the attention that it requires from our government, and to some extent at least until lately, from many of our people is the, well the war that is being waged in the form of the hijra. This is a term that many, again, are unfamiliar with. It is meant to describe kind of a colonization, a practice that goes back to the roots of Islam. We’re watching it play out in vivid technicolor and with a lot of human tragedy on the shores of Europe these days. But a man that has been focused like a laser on the implications for our own country of the possible resettlement here of vast numbers of folks who may in fact my be brining not just a desire to breath free and all of that, but a jihadist Islamic supremacist agenda as well. He is Representative and doctor, Brian Babin, he represents with great distinction the people of the 36^th Congressional District of Texas, a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and also the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, but perhaps to his greatest credit a member not only of the United States Air Force, but also an Airborne Artilleryman in the United States Army Reserve and the Texas Army National Guard. Congressman, I think this is your first time with us, welcome sir it’s long overdue. Thank you so much for what you are doing today as well as your past service to our country.

Rep. Brian Babin: You’re quite welcome Frank, it’s my honor and privilege to be on your show, and really to have the honor of knowing you and meeting you several times during my short time up here in the U.S. Congress, since being sworn in this past January. But you know you do so much good, it’s folks like you that focus the attention of the public on the where it needs to be, and the national security implications and the things we’re playing tug of war with up here in Washington could not be more stark in seeing the Iranian nuclear deal on one side, and then the ISIS, and the refugee crises on the other side. Both of these have dire implications for our country, and we’re seeing these things played out, and quite frankly back in July I dropped a bill called the Resettlement Accountability National Security Act or HR3314, and what this is going to do, because a lot of folks don’t realize this Frank, is that the United Nations is actually in charge of determining where our refugees are going to come from in the United States at tax payer’s expense and I think it’s high time we’ve had a lot of complaints from localities, communities around this country that are suddenly inundated with foreign refugees, in the hundreds and sometimes thousands, that just overwhelm their schools, and their facilities their health care facilities, hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and I think it’s time that we push the pause button, and that’s what my bill does. It’s going to push the pause button until the General Accounting Office can do an assessment of just what this is costing the tax payer, because overwhelmingly they are on federal assistance programs food stamps, you name it, and then they’re dumped into the local community, and as I said earlier they’re going to swamp the schools. I’ve been a school board member and a small town mayor and I could attest to this, and we want to see what this is costing us exactly, we do not know. And then on the other hand Frank, we’ve got the national security risks and it can be no more apparent than what we’re seeing of the millions, the hundred of thousands of millions of problems that are springing out of the Middle East, running from ISIS, and the civil war in Syria, and coming into Western Europe and wanting to make their way over here to the United States, and 70,000 per year are already coming in. President Obama has said he’s going to take at least a minimum of 10,000 more, and with this new power, the Power to Parole, he calls it we might have many tens of thousands more added to that seventy.

FG: Let me ask you about the national security piece of this specifically Congressman Brian Babin, because I think your, as I say, rendering an incredibly important service, and I just want to commend all of our listeners this legislation you’ve introduced called the Resettlement Accountability National Security Act, HR3314, is a direct response to a concern that I know you have and I think many of us have and should have, that amongst the people that are being brought in or will be brought in in the future in these refugee resettlement flows will be people who wish us harm, who are being put there perhaps by the Islamic State perhaps by al-Qaeda, both of these organizations having said they will use this vehicle to insinuate their operatives. When you look at what’s being done today Congressman Babin, in terms of the vetting of these people, is it up to snuff? Is it possible even for the FBI for example to do the kind of vetting that would assure us such jihadist are not admitted unknowingly into this country?

BB: I think it’s virtually impossible to vet these people properly, because I mean who do you go to? The police department and start asking questions, I think that’s just ridiculous. ISIS is already exploiting a lot of these refugee programs. I mean you don’t have to look any further than the turmoil that some of the terrorist and criminal acts in Western Europe as well as the United States like Garland, Texas Chattanooga, Tennessee. These people are already here and they have promised, and when I say they that’s ISIS, has promised to exploit these and will continue to do so. They’re coming here as we speak, and you don’t have to look any further than some of the videos, and the U.S. statistics itself said that the current refugees that are coming into Western Europe, I think it’s 71 percent are military aged males twenty to thirty years old, only thirteen percent are women, and fifteen percent are children.

FG: Congressman let me just turn quickly if I can because we’re almost out of time unfortunately, but the concern I think we both have again is, there doesn’t seem enough being done within the Congress, either in your chamber or in the Senate to evaluate this process. I’m told there’s never been a hearing since this Refugee Resettlement Program began some twenty odd years ago. What’s up with that, and give us a sense of how your legislation that would press, as you say, the pause button on refugee resettlement, pending a really serious study by the Congressional accountability folks, will fare as you see it? Are you finding receptiveness on the part of your colleagues and most especially the leadership?

BB: You know what I hate to tell you, but I received some cold shoulders, because I think folks are so inclined to be politically correct up here, because they are going to be perceived as being possibly uncompassionate, but the truth and passion should lay with America’s citizens, and communities, and towns, and our country because this bill, this Resettlement Act that we’re trying to pause, virtually guarantees an opening for ISIS to come in, establish U.S. bases, legally get tax payer funds, and it’s insane to subject the future dire consequences that our kids and our grandkids will suffer because of it.

FG: And you know one of the things that strikes me about this is Congressman, as you say, there’s this false notion that it is the only thing we can do is just to admit these people. There is a higher duty, as you know having sworn the oath of office repeatedly to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, that every one of your colleagues ought to be taking as their first responsibility. And what I just want to say in closing is your leadership on this legislation, again it’s HR 3314, and the work that my colleague Ann Corcoran and other colleague Jim Simpson, are doing to try to elevate these issues what is going on, what the dangers are, what the abuses are, is the sort of thing at a minimum cries out for a hearing, oversight hearings in the relevant committees in the Congress, I guess those would be the Judiciary Committees, and we will look forward to working with you to that end, both here on the program I hope as a future guest, and certainly in our respective capacities as you do your work on the Hill. Keep it up sir; come back to us again very soon, and in the meantime God speed with HR3314.