Senators Kaine and Menendez talk to Alhurra about Syrian refugees
Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) spoke to Alhurra’s Congressional Correspondent Rana Abtar about the debate regarding Syrian refugees in the United States. In separate interviews both Senators, who are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke about the strenuous vetting process for all refugees including Syrians. Sen. Kaine said, “we’ve actually added more steps to the process if they are a refugee from Syria.” While Sen. Menendez pointed out that most of the Syrian refugees are women, children and families, stating, “these are families, fleeing persecution, going through the most stringent background check.”
Sen. Kaine also cautioned that this is the largest refugee problem since World War II and said that there needs to be a global solution to it. He said, “We are trying to convince other nations to accept Syrian refugees. If we stand up as one of the leading nations in the world and say no Syrians under any circumstances…than we will be setting the worst example we can set for other nations.”
Sen. Menendez spoke out regarding his concerns about the visa waiver program, stating that needs to be reviewed more than the U.S. refugee program. He remarked that the U.S. has taken in approximately 2,000 Syrian refugees in the past four years and they are overwhelmingly families, women and children. He went on to say, “I’m not about to allow fear to overtake what is a responsible program.”