Rep. DeSantis: America's generosity does not obligate Syrian refugee resettlement

Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis does not believe America is obligated to resettle Syrian refugees.

“You do not bring refugees into the country if there’s a chance that they will be terrorists who will attack the American people,” he tells WOKV News.

DeSantis referenced recent reports that one of the Paris attackers may have posed as a Syrian refugee to get into France.

“I don’t think we want to run the risk of bringing folks here,” he says.

DeSantis claims the United States takes in more refugees and immigrants than all the other countries in the world combined.

“So the notion that somehow our generosity obligates us to bring people into the country who could potentially represent threats to our country, that's an argument that doesn't hold water.”

On Tuesday, Texas Congressman Ted Poe announced he's filing a bill to give state governors the choice of opting out of relocating refugees, essentially reforming the Refugee Act of 1980.

DeSantis had not heard of Poe’s announcement Tuesday evening, but says he likes the idea.

“The state governments, in particular the governor, are the ones who are really on the frontline to protect the safety, health and welfare of their people,” he says.  “If you have the federal government just dropping in refugees who have not been vetted, and some of them resort to terrorism, that’s really going to fall on the state and local authorities.”

DeSantis says the FBI Director came before Congress recently and acknowledged they cannot adequately vet the people coming in.

DeSantis believes Congress will pass a bill this week to stop the refugee program.