After Speaker Ryan put forth a bill to “pause” allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S., the bill has passed in the House 289-137 with a considerable number of Democrats jumping on-board the “not now” bandwagon.
President Obama has already threatened to veto the bill if it were to reach his desk.
In a surprising turn, forty-seven House Democrats defied their party by voting for the bill. Some reasoned that the legislation wasn’t as bad as it seemed, while others said the White House has not done enough to explain the refugee vetting process to the American people and therefore, these Democrats feared displeasing their constituents.
Luckily, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has said that the bill will not make it past the Senate. The Senate is expected to be out of session for a week and a half by which time, Reid hopes, the hysteria will have died down considerably.
“The initial reaction was overreaction,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said, “and cooler heads will probably prevail when Congress reconvenes after Thanksgiving.”
It is disappointing to see a considerable number of Democrats join what is, at its core, a fear driven and discriminatory bill that will do nothing to protect American citizens and instead do everything to promote Islamophobia and a systematic disenfranchisement of Muslim people both in America and around the world.
To read more about this story, visit The Huffington Post “House Dems Back GOP On Bill To Pause Admittance Of Some Refugees.”