GOP rep: Colleagues pressured me to vote for refugee bill
Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) says he changed his vote on Syrian refugee legislation after colleagues in the House “surrounded” him and pressured him to support the bill.
Just prior to the Thursday vote, Russell gave an impassioned speech on the floor calling the SAFE Act “xenophobic” and a “knee-jerk reaction” to the Paris terrorist attacks last week.
{mosads}“That created a bit of a ruckus,” he said in an interview with Talking Points Memo on Friday.
After his floor speech, he said colleagues pressured him into supporting the bill, which was on the cusp of securing enough votes to override a presidential veto.
Russell demanded to have a “seat at the table on all future discussions on the issue” before switching his vote.
The congressman said he initially opposed the bill because it threatens to “damage our liberties and who we are as Americans.”
Republicans have said the vetting process for refugees seeking asylum is not secure enough to prevent potential terrorists from entering the country.
It is suspected that at least one perpetrator in last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris entered France by posing as a refugee.
“I don’t disparage anyone in trying to find the best way to solve this issue,” Russell told TPM. “If there are differences, then let’s work those out. But what we can’t do is retreat in the face of ISIS and give up who we are as Americans.”
“Let’s not become the America that ISIS wants us to be,” he added.
Russell said “nobody” believes the legislation, which passed by a veto-sustaining 289-137 vote on Thursday, will be signed into law.
Senate Democrats have pledged to filibuster the bill in the upper chamber.
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