Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Tim Kaine vice presidential campaign, 2016/Syrian refugees
Ballotpedia's scope changes periodically, and this article type is no longer actively created or maintained. It may also contain neutrality issues.
See what Tim Kaine and the 2016 Democratic Party Platform said about Syrian refugees below.
Kaine on Syrian refugees
- Tim Kaine called for establishing safe zones to protect civilian lives and supply lines for food, water, and medical supplies in Syria. In 2014, he led an effort in the Senate to pass the Syrian Humanitarian Resolution. It called for fully implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2139 to ease the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians. The resolution also pressed the Obama administration to submit to Congress a comprehensive strategy to address the Syrian humanitarian crisis.[1]
- Kaine said that the U.S. had a moral responsibility to take in more Syrian refugees. On May 21, 2016, Kaine and a dozen senators wrote to President Barack Obama requesting that the U.S. accept “at least 50 percent of Syrian refugees whom UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] is seeking to resettle.” They also wrote, "Indeed, we cannot expect countries hosting Syrian refugees to continue shouldering such a disproportionate burden if the United States and other industrialized countries do not begin resettling many more Syrian refugees."[2]
- On May 18, 2016, Kaine and 25 U.S. Senate colleagues wrote to President Obama urging him to meet his administration's commitment to resettle at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States. "We write to express our strong support for resettling Syrian refugees in the United States and to urge your Administration to make every effort to meet your commitment to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016,” the senators wrote. “Nonetheless, we are deeply concerned about the slow pace of admissions for Syrian refugees in the first seven months of the fiscal year. During this timeframe only 1,736 Syrian refugees were admitted to the United States. By contrast, more than 6,000 refugees have been admitted from Burma, more than 5,000 refugees have been admitted from both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, and more than 4,000 refugees have been admitted from Iraq.” The senators also noted that “refugees are the most carefully vetted of all travelers to the United States” and “no refugees are admitted until after successful completion of [a] stringent security screening regime.”[3]
- During hearings in both the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees on January 20, 2016, Kaine asked witnesses whether they believed ISIL or Syrian refugees were a bigger enemy to the United States. That day he also voted against the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act. After casting his vote, he said in a statement, “Today I voted against consideration of a bill that would have labeled millions of innocent people fleeing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II as enemies of the United States. Instead of allowing amendments that would actually keep Americans safer – including closing the terrorist gun loophole and increasing funding for anti-terror efforts by local law enforcement and airport security – Republicans would rather talk tough for political gain while doing nothing to strengthen our security." He also said, "If Congress was really serious about keeping America ‘secure against foreign enemies’ we would be voting to authorize the war against our real enemy – ISIL. A debate and vote in Congress would show both our allies and adversaries that we are unified in our resolve against ISIL and committed to defeating the terrorist threat, while also sending an important signal of support to the more than 3,500 U.S. servicemembers we’ve deployed into harm’s way over the past 18 months.”[4]
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on Syrian refugees | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Tim Kaine Syrian refugees. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Tim Kaine
- Tim Kaine vice presidential campaign, 2016
- 2016 presidential candidates on foreign affairs
- 2016 presidential candidates on national security
Footnotes
- ↑ Tim Kaine United States Senator for Virginia, "Foreign Relations Committee," accessed July 25, 2016
- ↑ USA Today, "Fact check: Trump blasts Kaine for Syrian refugee plan," July 27, 2016
- ↑ Tim Kaine United States Senator for Virginia, "KAINE CALLS ON PRESIDENT OBAMA TO FULFILL COMMITMENT TO RESETTLE 10,000 SYRIAN REFUGEES IN AMERICA," May 18, 2016
- ↑ Blue Virginia, "Sen. Tim Kaine: 'The enemy is not refugees from Syria. The enemy is ISIL.'” January 20, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 24, 2016
