WASHINGTON—Lora Ries, director of Heritage’s Border Security and Immigration Center and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, penned an op-ed today opposing calls for the United States to accept migrants from Hamas-controlled regions in the Middle East.  

As Israel defends itself against violent and brutal attacks from the Iranian-backed terrorists from Gaza, some in the U.S. have called for the Biden administration's open border policies to extend to migrants from the region. As Ries explains in the op-ed, this would be a dangerous mistake because it is impossible to accurately vet every migrant that would attempt to exploit the chaos to enter America.  

Excerpts from the op-ed can be seen below. The full piece can be read here. 

“As if they haven’t done enough damage to the U.S. with their open-borders agenda, progressives now call for America to resettle Palestinian “refugees” from the Israel-Hamas war. Americans, including all rational leaders, must strongly and successfully reject this demand. … 

 

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports encountering over 7.4 million inadmissible aliens from over 160 countries nationwide since President Joe Biden took office Jan. 20, 2021. The Left refers to all these 7.4 million illegal aliens as “asylum-seekers.” Another 1.6 million known “gotaways” evaded Border Patrol agents and entered the country. What the Left won’t admit is that the Biden administration already has let in unknown numbers of unvetted Palestinians through the wide-open back door in the past two years and nine months. … 

 

“America is in no position to take on additional migrants from the Gaza Strip or anywhere else. In addition to the suffering caused by crushing numbers of migrants and other fiscal and human costs, America can’t take in another unvetted population of potential national security threats. … 

 

“We can’t vet a population against a database that doesn’t exist from a Hamas leadership with which the U.S. neither has diplomatic relations nor trusts. Both Egypt and Jordan have rejected resettling Palestinian migrants. … 

 

“The Biden administration has been the arsonist that burned down our humanitarian border and immigration system. Consequently, America now faces growing terrorist threats within our homeland. We must deny the administration’s ability to light any more matches. We must reject the reckless resettlement of Palestinians in America.”