[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 174 (Wednesday, December 2, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H8965-H8968]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SYRIAN REFUGEES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Woodall). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, although there are apparently those in the 
media that think it is fun to belittle people who express their great 
sympathy, thoughts, and prayers for the victims and their families out 
in San Bernardino, California, right now, those of us who care do 
extend our thoughts and prayers for those people.
  We don't know quite yet who the perpetrators were. I think this is 
important, as we have been talking about Syrian refugees quite a bit 
the last few weeks, and the President's intention to bring Syrian 
refugees into this country.
  Our friend, Senator Jeff Sessions, provided a list of 12 vetted 
refugees from areas where we actually had material, where we had 
information. Unlike the Syrian refugees, the FBI and Homeland Security 
felt they had plenty of information to vet these individuals, did vet 
them, thoroughly checked them out, and then brought them into the 
country.
  This article from Neil Munro is dated November 24, 2015. He mentions:
  ``Senator Jeff Sessions is out with a list of 12 vetted refugees who 
quickly joined jihad plots to attack the United States.
  ``He's spotlighting the refugees-turned-jihadis because he's trying 
to prod GOP leaders into halting Congress' normal practice of giving 
the President huge leeway to import foreign migrants and refugees into 
the United States.''
  It goes on: ``Obama says the new refugees will be vetted. But top 
security officials say the Syrians can't be vetted because the U.S. 
doesn't know what they were doing in Syria before they applied for 
refugee status.''

                              {time}  2045

  The article goes on:
  ``Besides, many of the jihad attempts in the United States are 
launched by the children of Muslim refugees and migrants. That list 
include the two Chechen brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, and 
Anwar al-Awlaki who was killed by a U.S. missile strike when he fled to 
Yemen after the 9/11 atrocity. That means the Americans' federal 
government is actively importing national-security problems that will 
eventually cost billions of dollars to manage, but cannot be 
eliminated.''
  And this list only covers 2015. There may be many more from 2015. 
There are certainly many more from prior years.
  But here are just some of the individuals that this administration 
completely vetted, made sure they were not a threat to the United 
States and our people, and, yet, brought them in only to find they were 
and are terrorists.
  On January 29, 2015, in the United States District Court for the 
Eastern District of Virginia, a Federal warrant was unsealed for the 
arrest of Liban Haji Mohamed--a native of Somalia who sources indicate 
came to the United States as a refugee, adjusted to lawful permanent 
resident status, and subsequently and applied for and received 
citizenship.
  ``Mohamed is believed to have left the U.S. on July 5, 2012, with the 
intent to join Al-Shabaab in East Africa. Mohamed previously lived in 
the metro D.C. area and worked as a cab driver, and is believed to have 
snuck across the border to Mexico after being placed on the no-fly 
list. Carl Ghattas, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Washington, 
D.C. Field Office, emphasized the importance of locating Mohamed: 
`Because he has knowledge of the Washington, D.C., area's 
infrastructure such as shopping areas, Metro, airports, and government 
buildings, this makes him an asset to his terrorist associates who 
might plot attacks on U.S. soil.' '' One refugee.
  Second refugee: On February 5, 2015, a native of Somalia came to the 
United States as a refugee. And this was done under the Bush 
administration. Abdinassir Mohamud Ibrahim came at the age of 22, in 
2007, and then was later adjusted to lawful permanent resident status.
  But, on February 5, he was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison 
for conspiring to provide material support to Al-Shabaab, a designated 
foreign terrorist organization. He lied on his application for 
citizenship, lied on his request for refugee status, and falsely 
claimed--these are what he was convicted of and charged with--falsely 
claiming that he was a member of the minority Awer clan in Somalia and 
subject to persecution by the majority Hawiye clan. However, Ibrahim 
was actually a member of the clan that was the persecutor and not the 
persecuted. That was Mr. Abdinassir Mohamud Ibrahim.
  Also, in Missouri, Abdullah Ramo Pazara, a native of Bosnia, came to 
the United States as a refugee, completely

[[Page H8966]]

vetted, adjusted to lawful permanent resident status, was made a 
citizen in 2013, 5 years into the President's administration.
  He has been named in an indictment with five other individuals as a 
terrorist. He is thought to be dead, but the others listed provided 
material support to Pazara who allegedly left the United States to go 
to Syria and fight with ISIS just 11 days after becoming a U.S. 
citizen.
  Then there is also Ramiz Zijad Hodzic. A native of Bosnia, he is a 
purported Bosnian war hero who came to the United States as a refugee. 
He is charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources 
to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists.
  You also have this year Sedina Unkic Hodzic, wife of Ramiz Zijad 
Hodzic, also a native of Bosnia. She came to the U.S. as a refugee. She 
is charged this year with conspiring to provide material support and 
resources to terrorists and providing support to terrorists.
  Then you have Armin Harcevic. He came to the United States as a 
refugee from Bosnia and subsequently had that adjusted to lawful 
permanent resident status. He is charged with providing material 
support to terrorists. He collected money from third parties and wired 
it and his own funds to terrorists.
  Then you also have Nihad Rosic, a native of Bosnia, who sources 
indicate came to the United States as a refugee. He applied for and was 
granted citizenship and has been charged with conspiring to provide 
material support and actually providing material support to terrorists.
  He is a truck driver and a former mixed martial arts fighter. He 
previously had been charged with endangering the welfare of a child 
after punching a woman in the face while she held a child. In a 
separate incident, he was charged with assault after allegedly beating 
his girlfriend. But, apparently, nothing came of those charges until he 
was charged with supporting terrorism.
  Mediha Medy Salkicevic, a native of Bosnia, came to the United States 
as a refugee, applied for and was granted citizenship, was also charged 
with conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists 
and providing that support to terrorists.
  Salkicevic was formerly an employee with a cargo company that deals 
with items coming in and out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, 
another refugee alleged by this administration to now be a terrorist.
  Jasminka Ramic, a native of Bosnia, came as a refugee, applied for 
and was made a citizen, was charged with conspiring to provide material 
support and resources to terrorists and providing that support to 
terrorists by this administration.
  You have got Abdurahman Yasin Daud, born in a refugee camp in Kenya. 
He came to the United States as a refugee when he was a child and was 
subsequently adjusted to a lawful permanent resident, has been charged 
with conspiracy to attempt to provide material support to ISIS. He and 
another individual are alleged to have driven from Minnesota to San 
Diego to attempt to get passports, cross the border in Mexico, and fly 
to Syria.
  Also, this year you have Guled Ali Omar, born in a Kenyan refugee 
camp. He came to the United States as a refugee. The United States gave 
him citizenship. This administration has charged him with conspiracy 
and attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

  Another one of his brothers, Mohamed Ali Omar, was convicted in March 
of threatening Federal agents when they came to the residence to 
interview Guled Omar.
  The U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota said that Omar 
``never stopped plotting'' and had previously attempted to leave the 
United States, another one of the refugees turned U.S. citizen, all the 
while, at least part of the time, a terrorist.
  And then also this year, in August, a native of Uzbekistan, Fazliddin 
Kurbanov, came as a refugee in 2009, was found guilty on charges he 
conspired and attempted to provide material support to a designated 
foreign terrorist organization and possessed an unregistered 
destructive device.
  U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin stated that he conspired 
to provide material support to the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan and 
procured bomb-making materials in the interest of perpetrating a 
terrorist attack on American soil.
  According to press reports, Kurbanov began his life as a Muslim, 
supposedly faced persecution when his family converted to Christianity 
and came to the United States with his family as a refugee, and, as it 
turned out, he is Islamic and radicalized.
  So it is interesting. This administration assures us we have nothing 
to fear, nothing to be concerned about. I am not afraid, but I am 
concerned about the oath that every one of us take.
  We are supposed to provide for the common defense in this country. It 
is an obligation we have. I think it is the most important obligation 
we have. We are supposed to protect the Constitution against all 
enemies, foreign and domestic.
  As Andrew McCarthy pointed out this past week in one of his articles 
on National Review Online, it should be important not merely to check 
to see if we have any information about an individual wanting to come 
here as a refugee or gaining a visa, however they intend to come, 
illegally, as millions have, more are every day.
  It would be important to ask not simply is this person a terrorist 
right now, but it would also be important to ask: Are you one of the 
two-thirds or so that have been reported to be in the United States or 
wanting to come into the United States as a Muslim who believes that 
Shari'ah law should replace the Constitution?
  Because, if those reports are accurate, that two-thirds of the 
Muslims here believe Shari'ah should replace the Constitution, and they 
are immigrants and they become citizens, then it means that they 
absolutely perjured themselves in their oath.
  That should be grounds for revoking their citizenship. And if it 
can't be used as such, we need to make sure it is used as such by what 
we do here in Congress.
  In the meantime, we have heard Ben Rhodes and so many others say: Oh, 
yeah. No. The FBI, Homeland Security, are going to be able to vet 
everybody really well.
  FBI Director Comey has made clear publicly--regardless of what he 
said privately, that does not change anything he said publicly. 
Publicly he has made clear: Yeah. We will vet them. But when you tell 
us their names, we have nothing to either verify or disprove what they 
have said.
  We have got nothing. We don't have any records from Syria. We don't 
know if they are even from Syria. We don't know. We don't have the 
information to vet them.
  FBI had more information to vet people coming from Iraq, and we know 
that they missed a couple of terrorists that were in Kentucky that were 
allowed in. I think it was 2009. And it turns out they just missed that 
their fingerprints--at least one of them--was on an IED in Iraq. The 
guy is a terrorist.

                              {time}  2100

  So despite what this administration tries to assuage, the borders are 
open. We have Syrian refugees that the President is bringing into the 
United States, even when Governors say: We understand you can't vet 
these people, so you are not bringing them into our States.
  I see this afternoon that the Governor of my State, Greg Abbott, has 
sued the administration because the administration has made clear: We 
don't care what you think, we don't care that you are Governor of your 
State, and we don't care about the 10th Amendment. We say we are 
putting Syrian refugees in Texas, and there is nothing you can do about 
that.
  Mr. Speaker, that kind of reminds me of the kind of things that King 
George and his bureaucrats used to say before the Revolution. When King 
George decided he would put his British soldiers anywhere he wanted to 
and there was nothing the people here could do about it, he would put 
them in their houses. He didn't care what it did to their property 
values. He didn't care anything about that. We don't need a revolution. 
We just need to have Congress hold the President accountable for his 
administration's lawlessness.

[[Page H8967]]

  Mr. Speaker, the President has got to secure our borders. He is 
putting American lives at risk every day. He is putting American lives 
further at risk since we know now we routinely have people that are 
completely vetted by the FBI, Homeland Security, and it turns out they 
are terrorists. The Tsarnaev brothers, even after Russia warned the CIA 
and the FBI that this guy, this older brother, has been radicalized, 
the FBI talked to him. He said: I am not radicalized. It is not his 
exact words. You talk to his mother, she said: No, he is a good boy. 
And then he went and killed people at the Boston Marathon with his 
brother.
  If we can't even stop people when we are alerted that they are 
terrorists, how in the world does this President and this 
administration think they are going to keep the American people safe?
  The report here, December 1, Tom LoBianco with CNN, said: ``President 
Barack Obama's former top military intelligence official said Tuesday 
that the White House ignored reports prefacing the rise of ISIS in 2011 
and 2012 because they did not fit their reelection `narrative.'
  `` `I think they did not meet a narrative the White House needed. And 
I'll be very candid with you, they just didn't,' retired Lt. Gen. 
Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency . . . 
`I think the narrative was that al Qaeda was on the run, and Osama bin 
Laden was dead . . . they're dead and these guys are, we've beaten 
them,' Flynn said, but the problem was that despite how many terrorist 
leaders they killed they `continue to just multiply.'
  ``Obama has been criticized by opponents for referring to ISIS as the 
`JV squad' and apparently underestimating the group's threat.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, since we know the President has underestimated 
ISIS as a threat, clearly underestimated them, and there is no clear 
strategy to deal with them, what makes us think that this 
administration is going to do a better job of vetting potential 
terrorists coming into this country and underestimating them the way 
they have so many other refugees that have been brought into the 
country?
  Another article from Jim Hoft, December 2, 2015, quoting the 
President: ``Yes. He really said this.
  `` `You go down to Miami and when it's flooding in high tide on a 
sunny day, the fish are swimming through the middle of the streets.' ''
  The Wall Street Journal reported the same thing, the same quote. But 
The Wall Street Journal reported: ``We go down to Miami with some 
frequency and have never seen any such thing. And believe us, we know 
how to troll.''
  But the President can find fish in the streets of Miami that nobody 
else seems to see, but he can't seem to notice how wide open our border 
is, what a threat to our security it is, and what a threat refugees are 
who we cannot determine who they are, where they came from, what they 
did, if they kill people, if they are terrorists. He didn't see any of 
that.
  There was a report from today, 4:20 actually, from Adam Kredo from 
freebeacon.com: ``More than 179,000 illegal immigrants convicted of 
committing crimes, including violent ones, continue to roam free across 
the United States, with reports indicating that these illegal 
immigrants commit new crimes `every day,' according to lawmakers and 
the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also 
known as ICE.
  ``Sarah Saldana, ICE's director, disclosed to Congress on Wednesday 
that the agency is apprehending and removing fewer illegal immigrants 
than in past years.
  ``Somewhere around 179,029 `undocumented criminals with final orders 
of removal' from the United States currently remain at large across the 
country and are essentially untraceable, according to Sen. Chuck 
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who disclosed 
these numbers during a Wednesday hearing.
  ``The total number of criminal illegal immigrants in the United 
States is in the millions.
  ``Illegal immigrant criminals are known to be committing new crimes 
`every day,' according to Sen. Jeff Sessions, another member of the 
committee.
  ``Focus on the threat of criminal illegal aliens comes amid a wider 
national debate on immigration to the United States and the threat 
posed by potential terrorists and other criminals.
  ``The Washington Free Beacon disclosed in August that the Obama 
administration had been keeping secret the release of violent criminal 
illegal immigrants and only began notifying local law enforcement 
agencies about this within the last several months.
  ``The administration is continuing a policy of hiding information 
about this issue, as `several administration officials informed the 
committee they were unable to testify because the hearing wasn't ``in 
response to a particular crisis,' '' Grassley said.
  ``Saldana revealed at the hearing that somewhere between 30,000 and 
40,000 illegal immigrants previously convicted of crimes have been 
released from custody in recent years due to legal restrictions on how 
long the agency can detain an individual.''
  Here is a quote from Saldana. She said: `` `Whether it's a result of 
protracted appeals or refusal of a country to accept its nationals 
back, this decision accounts for somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 
convicted criminal alien releases in recent years' . . . noting that 
the number has dropped over time.
  ``Lawmakers remain concerned that the Obama administration is 
dragging its feet when it comes to taking action to deport criminal 
illegal immigrants. While President Obama has vowed that this would be 
a priority for his administration, these criminals continue to be 
released into the United States.
  `` `Many criminals remain in our communities,' Grassley said. `When 
will enough be enough? Even those with violent criminal histories 
aren't being removed as promised . . . American citizens are paying the 
price while law enforcement officers are instructed to look the other 
way.'
  ``There have been `thousands of victims' of crimes committed by 
illegal immigrants and `many of the agency's own officers are unable to 
do the job they signed up to do,' Grassley said.

  ``The Obama administration is removing fewer total illegal immigrants 
from the United States than it was just a few years ago, according to 
Senator Sessions.
  `` `Not only are total removals down, but the number of removals of 
criminal aliens from the interior of the United States, the so-called 
priority, has decreased significantly,' he said. `The reason for this 
decrease is not because there are fewer criminal aliens in the U.S. 
today than just a few years ago, there are hundreds of thousands of 
known criminal aliens in the United States.'
  `` `New crimes are committed every day by criminal aliens, so while 
we're not seeing a decrease in crimes committed across this country, we 
are seeing a decrease in removals of criminal aliens,' Sessions said.
  ``This cannot be blamed on a lack of financial resources, Sessions 
said, as Congress has increased funding. Still, deportations have 
plummeted and the administration is `doing substantially less with 
substantially more.'
  `` `Our goal should be to keep 100 percent of all criminal aliens out 
of the United States. . . . There's nothing wrong or controversial 
about such a policy.'
  ``Saldana confirmed that `overall apprehensions on the border are 
declining' and the agency's `removal numbers are lower than they have 
been in recent years.'
  ``However, she maintained that the administration is removing `at a 
greater proportion' dangerous criminals.
  ``Of the 235,000 deportations, 59 percent of them were convicted 
criminals, according to Saldana . . . Yet she said, `there are also 
times when despite our best efforts' criminal illegal immigrants `get 
released from our custody.' ''
  An article today from Dianne Solis, Tom Benning, and Brandi Grissom:
  ``The State of Texas is suing the federal government and the 
International Rescue Committee, after the New York-based aid agency 
announced plans to resettle Syrian refugees in Dallas later this week 
over the strong and repeated objections of Gov. Greg Abbott.
  ``The State Health and Human Services Commission, filed on Wednesday 
the suit in U.S. District Court, saying those groups worked to resettle 
`refugees in Texas without consulting with

[[Page H8968]]

Texas or working in close cooperation with the Commission.'
  ``The agency, citing `reasonable concerns about the safety and 
security of the citizenry of the State of Texas' is seeking a temporary 
retraining order.
  `` `We have been working diligently with the International Rescue 
Committee to find a solution that ensures the safety and security for 
all Texans, but we have reached an impasse and will now let the courts 
decide.' ''
  That is Health and Human Services spokesman Bryan Black.
  Tonight at 6:30, I got this article from Tanya Somanader, President 
Obama on the shooting in San Bernardino. Here is the transcript of the 
President's comments. This is in an interview with CBS that President 
Obama spoke about the ongoing situation in California--going on right 
now--and the unacceptable pattern of mass shootings the U.S. is facing.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just parenthetically insert before reading his 
quote, we don't know who these shooters are yet. We don't know. We 
don't know their reason for doing what they did. I mean, some on the 
left have already tried to report that it was right by a Planned 
Parenthood facility when that was a mile away, trying to do whatever 
they can to try to avert responsibility--any responsibility--that the 
administration has. We have seen Kathryn's Law come about because 
Kathryn was shot in California in a sanctuary city that protected 
people who were illegally in this country and criminals like the one 
that shot Kathryn. And this administration protects sanctuary cities 
and lets them continue to just ignore Federal law. The lawlessness of 
this administration seems to know no bounds. If lawlessness breeds 
lawlessness, then the lawlessness of this administration has put this 
country in severe jeopardy.

                              {time}  2115

  But here is what the President said, part of his quote from this 
evening, about the shooting in California. And I am quoting the 
President.
  ``And for those who are concerned about terrorism, some may be aware 
of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can't get on 
planes, but those same people who we don't allow to fly could go into a 
store right now in the United States and buy a firearm, and there's 
nothing that we can do to stop them. That's a law that needs to be 
changed.''
  The President, the entire time he has been in office, has tried to 
subvert the Second Amendment to our United States Constitution and our 
Bill of Rights. He has tried every which way he can, whether using 
Social Security laws or all kinds of ways, to take away Americans' 
Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
  As we see that the administration has been knowingly allowing 
criminals into this country illegally and allowing refugees to come 
into this country that were terrorists and even finding out, getting 
word that there were people who have become terrorists and not taking 
action to stop the death that followed, how dare anyone allow people to 
come into the United States illegally, knowing that there are some 
criminals coming in with people that are coming in illegally, knowing 
that there are criminals in the United States that this administration 
has allowed to be released after they have committed crimes.
  And then coming to the point now today where he says, you American 
citizens are going to have to give up your Second Amendment rights to 
keep and bear arms because I have allowed so many people who are 
terrorists in here and we don't want terrorists to get guns. That is an 
outrage. It should not be allowed to stand against any kind of 
legitimate reasoning.
  You can't bring people into this country that are a threat to the 
country and then, because all these people are here and they might get 
a gun, you are going to keep law-abiding people from getting guns. That 
is wrong, and it has to be stopped.
  I hope and pray our Congress will stand up and stop the lawlessness 
and say, we are not letting you bring more refugees into this country 
that will have some terrorists within their group, as you have already 
done, and then tell us we have to give up our constitutional rights 
because you brought terrorists into the country that may want to go buy 
a gun. Shame on you.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Allen). Members are advised to avoid 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

                          ____________________