Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says the U.S. should not admit Syrian refugees because it could be inviting "some of the most violent and vicious people on Earth" to live the country.
"It makes no sense whatsoever," Huckabee told radio host John Fredericks on Thursday. "The British newspaper Daily Mail says the European Union is logging these refugees. Their records show that, out of 213,000 refugees that came to Europe in the spring, only 44,000 were actually from Syria. That's one out of five. Most of them were not real refugees fleeing the war; those folks are going to Jordan or Lebanon. Four out of five of them are from other countries ,and they're going to Europe for economic reasons or who knows what."
Huckabee called for a "vetting process" for refugees.
"If we don't have a vetting process and understand this is not just letting, you know, some hungry children in," continued Huckabee. "This is letting a bunch of military-age-able males that we have no idea who they are, why they're coming, and how ridiculous it would be to just say, 'Open the floodgates.' I mean we could be inviting some of the most violent and vicious people on Earth to come right in here and live among our families, and I think it's insane."
Huckabee also said Middle Eastern countries should be accepting refugees, not the U.S.
"Well I'm not sure the best thing for them is to bring them to the U.S.," he said. "I think we need to say, 'Look, we will help in humanitarian efforts with food and shelter and some basic necessities to get these folks in a transition, but they don't speak our language, they don't have our culture, they're really going to be very much sort out of their water, coming to the United States."
"Let's ask the Saudi Arabians to take them. I mean, they have not offered to take one refugee, and I think it's high time," Huckabee concluded. "They have gotten filthy rich off selling us oil all of these years. Maybe it's time they do more than say, 'We're going to fund some madrasas to teach terrorists. We're going to put a bunch of propaganda in American universities; we're going to fly around on our gold-plated airplanes and just act like kings and princes. Instead we're going to take some responsibility for our own neighborhood and the people who live there.' It's high time that an American president draws a line and says, 'That's what you're going to do, and if not, then we're done with you.'"
