Ellison: Opposing Refugees Will Be Used by ISIS ‘to Advance Their Cause’

‘They will use that message to recruit and they will use that message to advance their cause’

“[The bill makes the threshold so high that] it's impossible to see how anybody will get through that. I don't think we need a new law. I think what we need is to use the law that we have that has been successful, and what we need to do is if we need to, you know, strengthen it, we can do that. But we don't need a new law. 

I think it is important that the speaker said there would be no religious test. He's right to say so and I'm glad he said it. And I just want to say that in terms of our rhetoric, it's important, so I credit the speaker with that, but the law he's proposing, the bill he puts in front of Congress is not necessary. It will cause even more delay. 

Now, here's the other problem with this, not only is it, I think, not the right thing, not the American thing to try to close the doors to our country, but it's actually tactically a mistake. Because Daesh, also known as ISIS, this terrorist group is trying to argue that the West, the United States included, is merciless. That they are against Muslims. And this is not true, it's not true at all. 

But if we allow them to scare us into closing our doors, they will use that to say to the refugees, 'See, we told you. These people don't want you and they don't care that you're suffering.' They will use that message to recruit and they will use that message to advance their cause. I don't believe we should do that.

I believe we should say that we are the United States. We have a program, it's been working, we're happy to improve it, but we're not going to change our narrative. And we're not going to let Daesh dictate narrative to us.”

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