GOLDFIELD, Iowa -- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday proposed an undefined new vetting system that would review refugees currently in the United States, following the announcement of two terrorism-related arrests.
While the Texas senator was speaking to Iowans on the campaign trail, news broke that 24-year-old Omar Faraj Saeed Al Harda and 23-year-old Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab had been charged with providing support to the Islamic State and traveling to Syria to fight alongside terrorists. Both men were born in Iraq and came to the United States as refugees before the humanitarian crisis in Syria and the growth of the Islamic State.
Responding to a question from a reporter, Cruz called for a new system to be implemented to evaluate refugees already settled in the United States, focusing on countries with "high concentrations of radical Islamic terrorism ... al Qaeda or ISIS or Hamas or Hezbollah."
"We need to see a systematic and careful retroactive assessment of refugees brought in from high-risk countries to examine the public record, to examine all of the evidence that might indicate whether these individuals have ties to radical Islamic terrorists," he said.
Cruz, who has been trying to keep Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, quickly blamed the Obama administration, saying the White House refuses to recognize the threat of radical Islamic terrorism facing the U.S.
"These are dangerous times," he said. "This isn't a time for politics. This is a time when we need a president who says, 'I have no more solemn obligation for this country than to keep the men and women of this country safe.'"
"These arrests underscore the need ... for President Obama to suspend this indefensible policy putting political correctness ahead of national security," Cruz said.
The GOP presidential contender also mentioned legislation he has filed called the State Refugee Act, which would require the federal government to notify a state governor before it settles refugees in a state, and his Expatriate Terrorist Act, which would strip Americans of their U.S. citizenship if they are found to "wage jihad or attempt to murder innocent men and women."
"I call upon Mitch McConnell, I call upon Speaker Ryan, to pass the legislation," Cruz said.
He applauded law enforcement for making the arrests, but emphasized that the investigation is far from over, bringing many questions to light.
"Their apprehension raises the immediate question: Who else is there? What else are they planning next? ... And what can we do to prevent the next terrorist attack before more innocent life is taken?"
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