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By: Elias J. Atienza
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said that the United States cannot prevent “every terrorist attack” and thinks that the refugee vetting system needs improvement in an interview with Reason’s Matt Welch.
Amash has been opposed to President Trump’s executive orders, calling them unlawful on social media. He has been in the media spotlight due to his heritage, as he is one of six Republican Arab-American lawmakers and the only one who has been fully against Trump’s executive order.
Amash said that the refugee vetting process needs improvement:
“Well, the reason I say it needs to be improved is because I’ve been in classified meetings, and I know that some of our highest level officials, including the FBI Director, do not believe that the screening process is adequate, and they are unwilling to certify that people coming into the United States are screened effectively; are safe, in other words. So as long as you have the heads of these agencies—and this is under the Obama administration—saying that they are unwilling to certify, unwilling to assure us that they’ve been properly screened, I think there is more work to do. Now what all that work is, I don’t know. I don’t know all the details of the screening process and how we can improve it. But certainly these officials who are in charge of it should come up with better ways so they can feel confident.”
Amash also contended that that there is a lot of “nationalism” going around due to the election of President Donald Trump.
“Well I think culturally right now we are going through a period where we are sort of closing up a little bit. I mean, you have a lot of nationalism in sort of what brought Trump to power, and as a result you have a country right now that says, “Hey let’s close our borders, let’s close off trade, let’s really just look at our own people and not worry about being that shining beacon to the rest of the world.”
Listen to the rest of the interview below.
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