FBI, DOJ Can’t Agree: Is Syrian Refugee Screening Effective?

State Governors Doubt Thoroughness of Background Checks

by Rick Brinegar

 

The FBI and the Department of Justice can’t seem to agree on how effective the Syrian refugee screening process is. In October, FBI Director James Comey had told Congress that the federal government cannot conduct thorough checks on all of the coming influx of 10,000 refugees from Syria, and that Syrians who aren’t already in the FBI’s database are unknown to the agency. This means that their backgrounds cannot be adequately scoured for a risk of terrorism. Even DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson had admitted, “…we’re not going to know a whole lot about” certain refugees coming in through a United Nations resettlement program. However, Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted that the United States is able to process the refugees safely, through a “significant and robust screening process.”

 

This week as many as 31 United States Governors decided that they do not intend to help resettle Syrian refugees in their states, fearing that some refugees could plan terrorist attacks similar to those carried out in Paris last Friday. President Obama called the governors’ actions “hysterical.” “Apparently they’re scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” the President said. A poll conducted over the weekend, after the suicide bomb and shootings in Paris, concluded that most Americans polled are fearful that a similar attack could happen in the United States.

 

Part of the vetting process involves checking refugees against government databases. It is difficult to gain access to Syrian government databases because the government is in disarray. Who is there to call in Syria to check up on a refugee’s background? If the asylum-seeker never did anything in Syria to be reflected in an American database, then what database is there to help in the investigation? FBI Director Comey had said, “…we can query our database until the cows come home, but there will be nothing showing up because we have no record of them.”