The current Syrian refugee crisis is a result of President Barack Obama's failure to leave a stabilizing force in Iraq and to take action against Syrian President Basher Assad, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson says.
Half of Syria's population has been either displaced inside the country or have sought refugee status in Europe and the United States, the Wisconsin Republican said on this week's edition of
"Fox News Sunday."
Story continues below video.
Obama has ordered 10,000 refugees to be accepted by the United States, but Johnson called that plan "very difficult."
It takes 18-24 months to vet refugees to ensure someone isn't a terrorist infiltrator. That process could be sped up, Johnson said, but none of the vital steps can be eliminated.
"It is not the fanciful to think that ISIS may be salting some of those refugees with some of their operatives and we need to be first concerned about our own national security," Johnson told host Chris Wallace.
"What we have do is face the reality of the situation that President Obama's strategy of peace through withdrawal has been a miserable failure," he said.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.