"We need to determine how much this program is costing taxpayers, and we need to make sure the people we are letting in aren’t radical Islamic terrorists," Jones said. "Until then, the program ought to be suspended."
Jones argued that instead of taking in refugees from countries that breed radical Islamic terrorists, the United States should focus its efforts on "urging stable Middle Eastern countries to allow refugees to resettle closer to their homeland."
"We are over 18 trillion dollars in debt. We don’t even have money to fix roads and schools for Americans who pay taxes and already live here," Jones said.
The White House announced last week that President Barack Obama had directed his administration to allow in some 10,000 Syrian refugees in fiscal year 2016.
On Monday, EU member states’ interior ministers adopted a plan to relocate some 40,000 refugees that are now in Italy and Greece throughout the 28-member bloc on an equitable basis. The decision comes as some EU countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary and Greece have expressed reluctance to welcome migrants.
Congressman Jones co-sponsored legislation last week, The Resettlement Accountability National Security Act of 2015, which would suspend the US federal refugee resettlement program until the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asses the real costs of the program.
