Are Refugees Terrorists? Sen Jeff Sessions Says 12 Asylum Seekers Planned Attacks

Amid a recent effort to cut the U.S. government’s budget for processing and resettling refugees, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions released a list of 12 refugees he said joined jihadi plots to attack America, Sessions' office confirmed Thursday to International Business Times. Since the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, Republicans have been raising concerns the U.S. could be the target of terror attacks from Syrian refugees admitted into the country as asylum-seekers.

President Barack Obama pledged earlier this year to allow as many as 10,000 extra Syrian refugees into the country over the current limits. In the past, Congress has given the Oval Office most of the leeway when it comes to the refugee program. Most Democrats say the vetting process, which can take years, is one of the safest and most thorough in the world.

Congressional Republicans could tie funding for the program to budget appropriations that will be negotiated in December, and thus potentially force the president’s hand on the issue.

The list of individuals who Sessions says have been charged in federal courts include a Somali refugee, several Bosnian refugees, one from Uzbekistan and one from Kenya. Breitbart noted children of refugees have attacked the U.S., including the Chechen brothers who planned and carried out the May 2014 Boston Marathon bombings.

The civil war in Syria has led to the largest refugee crisis since the second world war. Obama has been on the offensive lately when it comes to the asylum-seekers, and has been seeking to use his podium to clarify how the process works and who is coming to the U.S. He says that most of these individuals are women and children.

But Republicans looking to take Obama's job have taken a less-than-welcoming position. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said that admitting Christian Syrians but not Muslims seems like a good idea. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has likened the asylum-seekers to “rabid dogs,” and both Carson and Republican front-runner Donald Trump have made questionable claims that they saw New Jersey Muslims celebrating following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City.