WASHINGTON -- The bloody attacks in Paris are putting the Syrian refugee crisis at center stage in U.S. politics as migrants from that war-torn country surge toward the West and security concerns rise.
President Barack Obama isn't having second thoughts about bringing Syrian refugees to the U.S., one of his top aides said Sunday, but some on the Republican side are suggesting the nation shut its doors.
GOP presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Sunday said the United States should no longer accept Syrian refugees because it's impossible to know whether they have links to Islamic militants -- an apparent shift from earlier statements in which he left open the prospects of migrants being admitted with proper vetting.
"It's not that we don't want to, it's that we can't," Rubio said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "Because there's no way to background-check someone that's coming from Syria. Who do you call and do a background check on them?"
The question of admitting Syrian refugees has for months been part of the national security discussion among 2016 candidates that cuts to the heart of the American identity as a refuge. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday told NBC's Meet the Press that the U.S. should admit Syrian Christians, after proper vetting. Other Republican candidates have called for a ban on allowing Syrians into the U.S. All three Democratic presidential candidates have said they would admit Syrians but only after thorough background checks.
But Friday night's mass killings in Paris, which left at least 129 people dead, offered evidence that may have backed up what many, including Rubio, had been warning: People with secret ties to Islamic militants could flow across borders as part of waves of refugees.
Authorities said a Syrian passport found near one of the Paris attackers had been registered last month and traveled through three countries along a busy migrant corridor known for lax controls.
A spokesman for President Barack Obama said Sunday that the administration is moving forward with its plan to thoroughly vet and admit as many as 10,000 Syrian refugees.
"What we need to be able to do frankly is sort out that foreign fighter flow, those who have gone into Syria and come out and want to launch attacks or those people who have connections with ISIL in Syria," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on Fox News Sunday, using an Islamic State acronym. "At the same time, we have to recognize there's tragic victims of this conflict, there are women, and children, orphans of this war and I think we need to do our part, along with our allies, to provide them a safe haven."
The Paris attacks have elevated national security in the presidential contest. In Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate, which began with a moment of silence for the Paris victims, all three candidates -- former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley -- said the U.S. should admit far more than the 10,000 Syrians to which Obama has committed, but only with proper screening.
Rubio on Sunday said that was impossible.
"You can't pick up the phone and call Syria, and that's one of the reasons why I said we won't be able to take more refugees," Rubio said on ABC.
That is a switch from Rubio's other statements this fall, in which he voiced skepticism about proper vetting but still left the door open to admitting refugees. In September, he told Boston Herald radio: "We've always been a country that's been willing to accept people who have been displaced."
Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the U.S. "should absolutely suspend" the plan to bring in 10,000 Syrian refugees unless the government can show "100 percent" that the individuals aren't involved with Islamic State.
The U.S. is the "main target" for Islamic State, King, a New York Republican, said on Fox News Sunday. "There's virtually no vetting" of refugees' backgrounds, King said in response to Rhodes' comments. The U.S. should boost surveillance of Muslim communities, King added.
Since Friday, several Republican presidential candidates have called for Christian refugees to receive treatment different from Muslim refugees. Bush said Sunday that the U.S. should focus on "Christians that are being slaughtered." Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said the country could continue to provide "safe haven" for Christians but not "refugees that may have been infiltrated by ISIS."
The Islamic State is also known by the acronym ISIS.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called for sealing off U.S. borders, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wants to halt the arrival of any refugees from countries with a "strong presence of ISIS or al-Qaida." Ben Carson, a retired doctor who has embraced some of Trump's views, said Sunday that accepting Syrian refugees is "a suspension of intellect."
Obama's sympathy for the plight of the millions of Syrians fleeing a violent, yearslong war has prompted a wave of criticism from some Republican voters, including some who have long believed Obama is Muslim despite his insistence that he's Christian.
"I do not want them here -- we don't know who they are, we don't know their history, we don't know if they're terrorists just being funneled through these other countries," said Sheila Milbrandt, 49, a paralegal from Sour Lake, Texas, who attended Trump's Saturday rally in Beaumont, Texas. "I don't like a Muslim in our White House. I don't like his take on foreign affairs. I think he's too lax with terrorists."
Some liberals argue Obama's plans are not nearly enough. During the Democratic debate on Saturday evening, Clinton and O'Malley said the U.S. should increase that number to 65,000. Both said those refugees need to be heavily vetted. Sanders, I-Vt., won't put a number on it.
O'Malley said these refugees are fleeing terrorism, and the United States needs to be "a moral leader in this world." He noted that, in a country of 320 million, adding 65,000 refugees "is akin to making room for 6½ more people in a baseball stadium with 32,000."
In Alabama, Gov. Robert Bentley announced Sunday that he will refuse to relocate Syrian refugees to his state.
"After full consideration of this weekend's attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program," he said in a news release. "As your Governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way."
Michigan's Republican governor, who has welcomed Syrian refugees to his state, said he is putting the efforts on hold.
Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement Sunday that the state is postponing efforts to accept refugees until federal officials fully review security clearances and procedures. He added that Michigan is "proud of our rich history of immigration" but that Michigan's "first priority is protecting the safety of our residents."
Snyder's decision to halt the resettlement concerns Michael Mitchell, a vice president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national organizations resettling refugees for the U.S. government. He said prospective refugees go through a 13-step process with the government to ensure security before they are admitted.
"It's vital to keep in mind those who are refugees are fleeing persecution -- the very persecution that these attackers just committed on innocents in Paris," Mitchell said. "The doors being open to new refugees are going to mean companies getting employees, businesses starting. In the end, that is the best way to respond to violence overseas by demonstrating prosperity at home."
Information for this article was contributed by Laurie Kellman and Jeff Karoub of The Associated Press; Ros Krasny and Brian Wingfield of Bloomberg News; and Jenna Johnson, Katie Zezima and David Weigel of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/16/2015