Congress is examining new legislation that would bar the United States from accepting any new refugees that come from countries where "significant territory" is controlled by a terror organization.
The bill specifically targets Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen due to the presence of Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) militants and other radical terror forces.
The bill, introduced Tuesday in the House by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), would place restrictions on the Obama administration’s refugee resettlement program, which is set to allow thousands of refugees into the country.
Any foreign country in which a U.S.-designated terror group holds "significant territory" would be impacted by the bill.
"Congress must take action to secure any vulnerabilities within our refugee resettlement program that terrorists could exploit to harm the American people," DeSantis said in a statement Tuesday.
"Government officials such as the FBI Director acknowledge that they cannot adequately screen refugees from terrorist havens such as Syria and bad actors such as ISIS have already stated their intent to use these programs to infiltrate the United States," DeSantis said. "The first duty of the United States government is to protect the American people."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has sponsored similar legislation in the Senate.
All new refugees would be forced to prove "clearly and beyond doubt" that they are a victim of genocide and not aligned with any terrorist forces.
Others in Congress have disclosed that the Obama administration is having a difficult time running background checks on prospective refugees applying for asylum in the United States.
Administration officials have "told us on record that we can’t vet the Syrians, that the records don’t exist," Rep. Jeff Duncan (R., S.C.) said in a recent interview with the Washington Free Beacon.
Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson recently admitted before Congress that the U.S. intelligence community does not "know a whole lot" about Syrians applying for refugee status.
"It is true that we are not going to know a whole lot about a lot of the Syrians that come forth in this process, just given the nature of the situation," Johnson said at the time. "So we are doing better at checking all the right databases in the law enforcement and intelligence communities than we used to, and so it’s a good process, and it’s a thorough process. But that definitely is a challenge."