U.S. “SYRIAN” “REFUGEE” TIMELINE, with special appearances by Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Reason.com, the Cato Institute, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Review, and The American Conservative:
January 30, 2015. BuzzFeed: ISIS Operative: This Is How We Send Jihadis To Europe. “He detailed a scheme that takes advantage of the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation, which has sent 3.8 million refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war, pouring more than 1.5 million into Turkey alone.”
September 7, 2015. Marco Rubio: “We’ve always been a country that’s been willing to accept people who have been displaced.”
September 12, 2015. AFP: How the US plans to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees.
September 14, 2015. Mirror (UK): Officials warn 20,000 ISIS jihadis ‘have infiltrated Syrian refugee camps’. “Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bou Saab said he fears Islamic State radicals make up at least 2% of the 1.1million Syrians living in camps across his country. . . . ‘My gut feeling is they (IS) are facilitating such an operation. To go to Europe and other places… From Turkey to Greece.'”
September 14, 2015. Steve Chapman, Reason.com: This Is Why America Should Take More Syrian Refugees. “The Syrian exodus sparks fears of Islamic terrorists making their way here. But people who trek hundreds of miles on foot or cram into rubber rafts for ocean voyages typically have more pressing objectives than militancy. They do it to escape violence and extremism, not to spread it.”
September 15, 2015. Martin O’Malley: “Our country is large enough and compassionate enough to welcome 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2017.”
September 20, 2015. Hillary Clinton: “I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000.”
September 28, 2015. Barack Obama: “We’re also increasing the number of Syrian and other refugees we admit to the U.S. to 100,000 per year for the next two years.”
September 30, 2015. Donald Trump: “I’m putting the people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration, that if I win, if I win, they’re going back. They’re going back. I’m telling you. They’re going back. Because military tactics are very interesting. This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time.”
October 1, 2015. Jeb Bush responding to Trump: “I think that’s a horrible thing. . . . The idea that you would send back refugees, when in American history has that ever happened? We have to stand for certain values.”
October 11, 2015. Ann Corcoran, Refugee Resettlement Watch: US Conference of Catholic Bishops want 100,000 Syrians admitted to US this year. (This was covered earlier here.)
October 11, 2015. Donald Trump: “What I won’t do is take in 200,000 Syrians who could be ISIS. John, I have been watching this migration. And I see the people. I mean, they’re men. They’re mostly men, and they’re strong men. These are physically young, strong men. They look like prime-time soldiers.” (Video is available here.)
October 12, 2015. Jillian Kay Melchior, National Review: Why So Many of Europe’s Migrants Are Men. “Many patriarchs are well aware of the risks of bringing their families with them. . . . If many of these male migrants are simply traveling alone to spare families they intend to bring to Europe later, it may alleviate one major concern raised by some of the most fervent critics of this population shift, who have bluntly warned of a ‘Muslim invasion’ of fighting-age men into Europe.” (Sure, it’s a conditional statement, but the article pushes this angle hard.)
October 21, 2015. A. Trevor Thrall, Cato Institute: Let Syrian Refugees in—All of Them. “The United States and its European allies should plan to take in all refugees fleeing violence in Syria.” (The sentiment was reaffirmed on November 14, 2015.)
November 3, 2015. Fox 8 WVUE New Orleans: Syrian refugees beginning to arrive in New Orleans.
November 13, 2015: Paris is attacked. A later headline reads: Two of the Jihadis sneaked into Europe via Greece by posing as refugees.
November 14, 2015. Rod Dreher, The American Conservative: Refugees & the Paris Attacks. “I did not believe last night that the refugees had anything to do with the Paris attacks, and I don’t believe it now.” Then he checked the news: “The Guardian is reporting that one of the ‘refugees’ actually may have been involved in the attack.” But even so, “The problem is not really one of terrorists coming in undercover with the refugees. The problem is Europe not being able to find jobs and establish lives for the massive numbers of refugees coming now, and those people — or, more likely, their sons — being highly susceptible to radicalization.” (On a related note, see an earlier analysis showing that poverty and unemployment are poor explanations for why Muslims in the UK have brutally murdered people in various high-profile cases.)
November 14, 2015. Breitbart: Hillary, Sanders, O’Malley: After Paris Attack U.S. Should Still Take Refugees.
November 15, 2015. WND: Forget Paris: GOP candidate to double funding for Syrian ‘refugees’. “Lindsey Graham . . . is co-sponsoring legislation with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to nearly double the amount of funding Washington spends on resettling refugees from Syria. . . . Leahy’s office told the Hill that the legislation would allow for the resettlement of up to 100,000 Syrian refugees over two years.”