A member of the so-called “Squad” called on the United States to accept Palestinian refugees. However, Republicans immediately pushed back on the idea to import thousands of refugees from Palestine.
Juliette Touma – spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees – estimates that 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in just a week.
Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) directed the U.S. to accept some of the 1 million Palestinian refugees.
“Fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children. The international community, as well as the United States, should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman, according to the New York Post.
Bowman is currently being investigated for pulling a fire alarm at the Cannon House Office Building during a House vote to avert a government shutdown.
Several prominent Republicans have vehemently objected to bringing Palestinian refugees into the United States.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared that the U.S. should not accept Palestinian refugees, but did offer a solution to the humanitarian crisis.
“Also I will say, and I don’t know what Biden’s going to do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” the GOP presidential candidate said during a campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday. “I am not going to do that.”
“If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist,” DeSantis continued.
“None of the Arab States are willing to take any of them,” he said. “The Arab States should be taking them if you have refugees. You don’t fly people and import them into the United States of America. So we’re going to be very strong on that.”
DeSantis hammered U.S. citizens who support and “praise” Hamas militants who executed terrorist atrocities against Israeli civilians last weekend.
“We’ve got some serious problems in this country, we’ve allowed a lot of these problems to fester,” DeSantis noted. “But my view is very simple – if you don’t like this country, if you hate America, you should not come to this country. We’ve got to start being smart about this.”
On Thursday, DeSantis signed an executive order for the state of Florida to “carry out logistical, rescue and evacuation operations” to bring Floridians home from war-torn Israel. The executive order also provides necessary supplies to the people of Israel.
Fellow Republicans also voiced strong opposition to resettling refugees from Palestine in the United States.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told the New York Post, “The U.S. is the most generous nation in the world, but we are in no position to accept additional refugees, especially from a region with as high a risk of terrorism, given our nation’s inability to secure our own border or vet those who are already here.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) added, “Iran should take responsibility for any Palestinian refugees caused by its proxy . . . war with Israel. Iran is responsible for the death and destruction — it should be responsible for refugees as well.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) declared, “The entire focus of the United States right now should be on rescuing American hostages, and making sure that Israel has every resource needed to defeat Iran backed-Hamas and defend its homeland. Some Progressive politicians are calling on the United States to take refugees from Gaza.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he would oppose the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the United States.
Meanwhile, Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) are set to introduce legislation that would bar President Joe Biden from importing refugees from Palestine.
The bill – titled the “Guaranteeing Aggressors Zero Admission Act” or the “GAZA Act” for short – would prevent the Biden administration from issuing visas to Palestinian refugees.
Tiffany said on the X social media platform, “We can’t let President Biden abuse our parole and visa rules to bring unvetted Palestinians into American communities the way he did with thousands of unvetted Afghans.”
The Israeli military has issued a warning to Palestinians that an all-out offensive will happen in the near future and Gaza residents should travel south to evade the combat operations targeting Hamas terrorists detaining hostages.
The evacuation area includes approximately 1.1 million Palestinians – roughly half of the territory’s population.
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