Growing Coalition of Republicans Oppose Importing Palestinians to U.S.

A fast-growing coalition of Republican lawmakers is drawing a hard line over the war in Israel, declaring that they will oppose any attempts by President Joe Biden to resettle Palestinians across the United States.

As Breitbart News reported, Reps. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced the “GAZA Act,” which would prevent Biden from issuing visas to those with Palestinian Authority passports as well as blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from bringing Palestinians to the U.S. through parole.

Following the bill’s introduction, a number of Republicans have said they too will oppose importing Palestinians to the U.S.

“Iran should take responsibility for any Palestinian refugees caused by its proxy … war with Israel,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told the New York Post‘s Jon Levine. “Iran is responsible for the death and destruction — it should be responsible for refugees as well.”

Similarly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), running in the GOP presidential primary, told a crowd of supporters in Iowa this weekend that the U.S. “cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees.”

RELATED VIDEO — DeSantis: Every Republican Running for President Should Pledge U.S. Cannot Accept Gaza Refugees:

“I am not going to do that,” DeSantis continued:

If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic, none of them believe in Israel’s right to exist, [and] none of the Arab states are willing to take any of them. The Arab states should be taking them if they have refugees. You don’t fly people and import them to the United States of America. We’re going to be very strong on that. [Emphasis added]

…

My view is very simple: If you don’t like this country, if you hate America, you should not come to this country … this also raises the question of how much risk now we have as Americans because of this open border … you know under Biden, people from the Terrorist Watch List have come in and that’s not me saying it, that’s Biden’s own DHS saying it … we know people have come from Iran, China, the Middle East … you don’t think there’s any percentage of those who [want to do this country harm?] [Emphasis added]

DeSantis, when questioned on CBS’s Face the Nation over the remarks, reiterated his position, saying the “U.S. should not be absorbing any of those.”

“Those Gaza refugees — Palestinians and Arabs — should go to Arab countries … if we were to import large numbers of those to the United States, I think it would increase antisemitism in this country and I think it would increase anti-Americanism in this country,” he continued.

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL), both with large Jewish constituencies, suggested they will oppose any plans set forth by the Biden administration that seek to resettle Palestinians in American communities.

Rubio told the 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. [Emphasis added]

“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,” Scott said.

The Republicans’ opposition comes as Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-CA) told the Post the U.S. must “welcome” Palestinians because “fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children.”

The U.S. already gives green cards to more than a million legal immigrants annually — a policy that is set to bring the nation’s foreign-born population to an unprecedented 50 million, likely by the end of the year.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.