Contrary to Obama claim, US has history of admitting refugees based on faith

Immigration experts give President Obama Pinocchios for his claim that the U.S. has never used “religious tests” to determine which refugees get passage to America.
Russian and Ethiopian Jews, Armenians Christians and Catholics from Vietnam have all been moved to the front of the line in previous eras based on their faith, according to historians. And giving one religious group preference is tantamount to sending others to the back of the lines, noted immigration experts.
“Clearly, there have been policies that said we will consider certain people from certain religions,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“I don’t know that I would say put Christians at the front of the line in every case, but I would say, as a policy, to put religious minorities first.”
- Randall Everett, 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative

Obama spoke after more than 30 governors and virtually all Republican presidential candidates called for a moratorium on Syrian refugees amid fears that ISIS terrorists may have infiltrated the desperate wave of mostly Muslims pouring out of the Middle East. Obama has called for the U.S. to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees through an expedited process. Critics, who say it is impossible to screen them, objected on national security concerns, but Obama likened their opposition to religious discrimination.
“When I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which a person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution -- that’s shameful,” Obama said, in an apparent swipe at senators and GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both children of Cuban immigrants. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”

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Among the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees, some fear ISIS plants are hiding. (United Nations)

But under the 1990 law known as the Lautenberg Amendment, the federal government initially granted a presumption of refugee eligibility for Jews and Christians fleeing the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia. Nowadays, the amendment, extended last year by Obama, prioritizes the resettlement of Jews, Christians, Baha’is, and other religious minorities who flee Iran.
Obama, his critics and some experts appear to have taken at least three sides in the debate. The president believes not taking in Muslim refugees is religious discrimination; critics say doing so could expose Americans to Islamic extremists who hide among them and still others who spoke to FoxNews.com say religious minorities, which in the Middle East are Christians, deserve priority.
The State Department has even indicated that Syria’s Christian community, which made up an estimated 10 percent of that country’s population prior to the civil war, and has faced horrific brutality from Islamic State, should get preferential treatment based on their status.
“Due to the unique needs of vulnerable religious minority communities, the State Department has prioritized the resettlement of Syrian Christian refugees and other religious minorities fleeing the conflict,” wrote the department’s Special Advisor for Religious Minorities, Knox Thames, in a recent email.
Any religious minority is at greater risk and therefore due extra consideration, said Randall Everett, president of 21^st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to fighting religious persecution.
“I don’t know that I would say put Christians at the front of the line in every case, but I would say, as a policy, to put religious minorities first,” Everett said. “In Iraq and Syria, Christians and Yazidis are the minority, and their situation is dire.”
The whole argument may be moot anyway, given that determining anyone’s true identity – much less their religion – may not always be possible in the chaotic and war-torn region where phony documents are everywhere and desperate people and evil terrorists will both say whatever they must to achieve their goal.
“It would not be unprecedented to choose refugees in part on the basis of their religion,” said Jessica Vaughan,  of the Center for Immigration Studies. “ Nevertheless, a program to focus resettlement on Syrian Christians is still risky, for the same reasons as one that does not specify religion. We still have no way to ascertain the true identities of the applicants, or verify their claims.”

Fox News Poll: Trump rules GOP race in New Hampshire, Sanders by 1 over Clinton

Donald Trump leads the race for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire, while Bernie Sanders edges Hillary Clinton among Democrats.
That’s according to the latest Fox News poll, released Wednesday, and conducted since Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
Trump leads with 27 percent of New Hampshire Republican primary voters.  Marco Rubio receives the support of 13 percent, just above Ted Cruz at 11 percent.  That’s it for the double-digit candidates.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
Jeb Bush and Ben Carson garner 9 percent each, followed by John Kasich at 7 percent and Chris Christie at 6 percent.
Just three percent back Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul, while Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum get one percent each.
There are differences in how some candidates are doing in New Hampshire versus their recent national standing (pre-Paris).  For example, Carson is Trump’s closest competitor nationally, yet he doesn’t break double digits here.  And the reverse is true for Bush, Christie and Kasich, who do better in New Hampshire than nationally.
The poll, however, also shows that the race is in flux: 55 percent of GOP primary voters say they could change their mind before February’s balloting.  Less than half, 44 percent, feel certain of their choice.  
When asked about their second choice candidate, GOP primary voters put Carson at the top of the list at 16 percent.  Rubio is close behind at 13 percent and Trump at 11 percent.
When first and second-choice preferences are combined, Trump (38 percent) and Rubio (26 percent) are still at the top.  However, Carson (25 percent) moves above Cruz (20 percent) and Bush (16 percent).
The favorites among those NH GOP primary voters who identify as “very” conservative are Cruz (27 percent), Trump (26 percent), Carson (13 percent) and Rubio (13 percent).
Here’s how the race for the Democratic nomination stands:  Sanders has a razor-thin one-point edge over Clinton -- 45-44 percent. Martin O’Malley gets 5 percent.
Sanders can thank younger voters for his edge.  Those under age 45 back him by 29 points (59-30 percent).  Those ages 45 and over are more likely to support Clinton by 17 points (52-35 percent).
Men go for Sanders over Clinton by 49-37 percent.  Among women, the vote divides 48 percent for Clinton vs. 42 percent for Sanders.

Potential General Election Matchups
All the candidates remain below 50 percent in the hypothetical matchups tested in this battleground state.
Although Trump is the top choice of Republican primary voters, he performs the worst against Clinton in general election ballot tests.  Clinton bests Trump by seven points (47-40 percent), Cruz by three points (44-41 percent) and Christie by one (44-43 percent).
Clinton and Fiorina tie at 43 percent each.
Four Republican candidates come out ahead of the presumptive Democratic nominee:  Rubio is ahead by 7 points (47-40 percent), Bush (45-42 percent) and Kasich (43-40 percent) are up by 3 points each, and Carson has a 2-point edge (45-43 percent).
President Barack Obama won New Hampshire in both the 2012 presidential election (by 52-46 percent over Republican Mitt Romney) and in 2008 (by 54-45 percent over Republican John McCain).
Among New Hampshire voters overall, about 6 in 10 are unhappy with the way things are going in the country today (58 percent), including 31 percent who are “not at all” satisfied.
Nearly 9 of 10 Republicans are dissatisfied with how things are going (86 percent), compared to 60 percent of independents and 29 percent of Democrats.
That dissatisfaction is reflected in Obama’s performance rating, as more New Hampshire voters disapprove (50 percent) than approve (43 percent) of the job he is doing.
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The poll was conducted November 15-17, 2015, by telephone (landline and cellphone) with live interviewers among a sample of 804 New Hampshire registered voters selected from a statewide voter file.  Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, and 5.5 points for Democratic primary voters and 5 points for Republican primary voters.  The hypothetical matchups were split sampled, which means each question was only asked of half the sample and the results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 points.

NYC officials reassure residents after ISIS video shows Times Square, praises Paris attackers

New York City officials vowed that they were prepared to handle any terror threat late Wednesday after a video released by ISIS praised the recent attacks in Paris while using previous footage of a suicide bomber preparing to attack Times Square.
The video's release came just before the city goes into full holiday mode, with next week's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade followed by the Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center on Dec. 2. These and other events attract tens of millions of visitors each year.
Police Commissioner William Bratton described the video as "hastily produced," while Mayor Bill De Blasio insisted that New Yorkers "should continue to go to work, live their lives, and enjoy the greatest city in the world."
"Be aware, but do not be afraid. The NYPD will protect you," Bratton said. "We cannot be intimidated, and that's what terrorists seek to do. They seek to create fear. They seek to intimidate. We will not be intimidated, and we will not live in fear."
The video, released by ISIS’s media arm the Furat Media Center, features several men, some speaking in Arabic and French, congratulating ISIS over the Paris attacks and promising that terror group will prevail.

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The video also shows French President Francois Hollande’s address following the attacks on Paris last week, mixed in with scenes of an older video of New York City.
Before showing scenes of New York's Times Square, an ISIS militant is pictured saying that the attacks in Paris were just the beginning.
The video then cuts to a militant donning a bomb vest mixed with footage of flashing billboards and yellow taxi cabs.
The video ends with a message on screen that reads "and what is to come will be worse and more bitter."
However, none of the speakers in the video specifically mention attacking Times Square, despite the imagery of the suicide bomber preparing to attack.
New York City Police Department spokesman Stephen Davis said the agency is aware of the video, and will continue to work with the FBI and intelligence community.
“While some of the video footage is not new, the video reaffirms the message that New York City remains a top terrorist target,” he said, later adding "While there is no current or specific threat to the city at this time, we will remain at a heightened state of vigilance and will continue to work with the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the entire intelligence community."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that after the attacks in Paris he directed state agencies to "enhance their preparedness."
"Remember that the terrorists' goal is to let fear win - New Yorkers never have, and we never will," he said.

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Bobby Jindal ends 2016 presidential campaign

Gov. Bobby Jindal drops out of 2016 presidential race

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on "Special Report" he is suspending his presidential campaign.
Jindal said he was born to "believe Americans can do anything," but that he's come to the realization that "this is not my time." 
"Going forward, I believe we have to be the party of growth and we can never stop being the party that believes in opportunity," Jindal said in a statement announcing his decision. "We cannot settle for the left's view of envy and division. We have to be the party that says everyone in this country - no matter the circumstances of their birth or who their parents are - can succeed in America."
When asked by Baier why his candidacy didn't take off, Jindal said his campaign spent "a lot of time" developing policy papers, but "clearly there wasn't a lot of interest" in those papers.
The 44-year-old governor told Baier he is not endorsing another candidate right now, but will support the eventual Republican presidential nominee.
"At the end of the day I trust the American people to select our nominee for the next president," he said Tuesday. "I want someone who's got the smarts to make big changes."
The Louisiana governor touched on the recent terror attacks in Paris, saying the U.S. needs "different leadership" going forward in dealing with ISIS. 
"They hate our freedoms," Jindal told Baier. "The attack on Paris was not just an attack on the French, it was an attack on our way of life."
He also addressed the growing controversy among governors of 25 U.S. states over the Syrian refugee program. 
"We don't want these refugees in our state," Jindal said.
Jindal said that he's ordered Louisiana State Police to track the 13 Syrian refugees that have been sent to his state so far by the federal government. 
"Why would we let people in the country when ISIS has told us they are going to send terrorists with these refugees?" he said.
The nation's first elected Indian-American governor, who is term-limited and will be out of office in January, told Baier he will work with a think tank he started a few years ago called America Next.
Jindal had focused his entire campaign effort on the early voting state of Iowa and evangelical voters while attempting broaden his appeal as a candidate with conservative policy plans that others weren't offering.
But he never won much support in Iowa or elsewhere against higher-profile Republican candidates such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Jindal's low poll numbers kept him off the main debate stages where he could have drawn more attention, and his fundraising lagged. 
He was also facing a major cash crunch to keep the campaign going, after wrapping up the last fundraising period with $261,000 on hand, in addition to low approval ratings and criticism about his governing back in Louisiana, which followed him as he campaigned for the White House.
Some of Jindal's advisers blamed finances as well as the debate criteria that locked him out of the prime-time events for the governor's decision to exit the competition.
"He's been thinking about it for a few weeks," campaign strategist Curt Anderson told the Associated Press. "It's not easy. He's a fighter and his instinct is to never give up, but also you have to be realistic in politics."
Shane Vander Hart, author of a conservative Iowa blog who recently endorsed Jindal, also expressed disappointment, saying Jindal was getting good reaction in Iowa, though he struggled to gain traction in the polls.
"If you've done any of his events, retail politicking is one of his strengths. People as they got to know him liked him," Vander Hart told the AP.
Jindal is the third Republican contender to exit the race, all governors. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ended their campaigns earlier this year.
Timmy Teepell, Jindal's campaign manager and longtime political adviser, said the governor was heading home to Louisiana to announce his plan for closing a $490 million budget deficit before traveling the state as he wraps up his tenure in office.

Hill Republicans move to 'pause' Syrian refugee effort, with states having limited say

Most U.S. governors have made clear they don’t want Syrian refugees in their states after the deadly Paris terror attacks, but only Congress appears to have the authority to stop President Obama’s plan. 
And Capitol Hill lawmakers are moving swiftly. 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday both called for a “pause” in the administration’s refugee plan, which includes resettling 10,000 Syrian civil war refugees through 2016.
“Right in front of us is a refugee situation that requires a pause,” Ryan, R-Wis., said on Capitol Hill. “Our nation has always been welcoming, but we cannot let terrorists take advantage. ... This is about national security.”
He gave no specific details but said a task force is working on legislation, adding: "It's better to be safe than to be sorry."
A total of 30 governors, including one Democrat, so far have expressed opposition to the plan in the wake of Friday's attacks, executed by at least one suspected Syrian refugee with ties to the Islamic State terror group and who perhaps slipped through Europe’s vetting process.
However, scholars and legal experts acknowledge that governors have little if any power to stop refugees from entering their states, citing the Refugee Act of 1980 which gives the federal government the authority.
“Immigration is a federal responsibility,” James Carafano, a national security and foreign policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday. “States cannot say, ‘You cannot come into this country.’ But they can say that they’re not going to part with state resources. They can do that.”
The White House said late Tuesday that Chief of Staff Denis McDonough hosted a call with 34 governors that included an "extensive" question and answer session among administration officials. Of the 34 governors on the call, 13 asked questions, according to the White House.
Administration officials also reiterated that President Obama's top priority is "the safety of the American people."
"Even as the United States accepts more refugees-including Syrians-we do so only after they undergo the most rigorous screening and security vetting of any category of traveler to the United States," the White House said.
Ryan’s announcement followed a flurry of similar proposals from Republican senators, including at least two presidential candidates, following the Paris attacks in which 129 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured.
On Monday, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions called on Senate appropriators to cancel the "blank check" for overall U.S. refugee-resettlement efforts that would be included in a bill to fund the federal government after Dec. 11.
Sessions argues the overall plan calls for resettling at least 85,000 more refugees worldwide and “an unlimited amount of money to be spent on lifetime welfare and benefits … without a penny of offsets.”
He cited a Heritage Foundation study that forecast the total cost of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees at roughly $6.5 billion. Sessions was joined Tuesday by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., in calling for a provision in the "omnibus" spending bill to block the funding unless and until Congress votes separately to authorize it and offset its costs.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a presidential candidate, in September expressed his concern about the Syrian refugee program. In a letter to top administration officials, he questioned whether the refugees were being properly vetted for ties to the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups.
On Monday, Cruz promised legislation to keep Muslim Syrian refugees out of the United States.
He told CNN that President Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s plan bring them into this country after what happened in Paris “is nothing short of lunacy.”
More than 2,000 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the U.S. already since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, another of the Senate’s GOP White House candidates, on Monday also announced legislation that would suspend issuing visas in countries “with a high risk of terrorism” and impose a waiting period for background checks on visas being issued in other countries until Americans can be assured terrorists cannot enter the country through the U.S. immigration and visa system.
“The time has come to stop terrorists from walking in our front door,” said Paul, who first drafted the legislation in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, committed by two refugees.
Ryan’s announcement also came just hours after former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich told WMAL Radio that Congress should try to block the Obama refugee plan by withholding federal funding in the so-called “continuing resolution” next month.
Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, already has been trying to include a rider in the spending resolution that would keep Obama from using taxpayer money to resettle Syrian refugees until the U.S. intelligence community approves the program.

Lesbian mother asks Supreme Court to reverse Ala. custody ruling

A lesbian mother in Alabama filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, asking it to review her case after state judges ruled she has no legal parental rights over the children she says she helped raise.
The woman, known in court filings by her initials V.L, petitioned the high court to step in after the Alabama Supreme Court held that she was not the legal parent to the three children she shares with her ex-partner (who gave birth to them by artificial insemination).
The court also held that she had no visitation rights now that the two adults, who never legally married, had split after a 16-year-relationship. The pair had temporarily moved to Georgia where they believed the state would be more open to granting parental rights to both of them.
The Alabama justices said, "Georgia law makes no provision for a non-spouse to adopt a child without first terminating the parental rights of the current parents."
While the Georgia court did recognize those rights, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Georgia essentially broke its own laws by recognizing them and that subsequently the suing partner has no legal parental rights.
Cathy Sakimura, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, called the Alabama decision "terrifying" and said it illustrates the continued legal challenges facing gay and lesbian parents. She said the Alabama court had no legal authority to second-guess the decision of the Georgia court that had granted the adoption.
"As a result of that serious constitutional violation, the children in this case have been wrongly separated from one of their parents, and the stability of adoption judgments across the country has been called into question," Sakimura said.
Sakimura said her client helped raise the children, now ages 10 to 12, since their births, but isn't allowed to see the children because of the court decision.
Her ex-partner fought her visitation saying the couple lived in Alabama, but only rented a home in Georgia because they believed the court there to be friendlier to adoption petitions by gay couples.
The case will go to Justice Thomas, who can decide alone or refer to the full Court for a decision.  It was considered likely he’ll ask the other side to provide a response before a ruling.
The Alabama Supreme Court earlier this year directed probate judges to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples even though a federal judge ruled the state's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional. The directive brought a stop to the weddings until the U.S. Supreme Court said gay and lesbian people have a fundamental right to marry.

Five terror suspects arrested, 2 dead in raid targeting Paris attack mastermind

Five terror suspects were arrested Wednesday morning and two others were killed, including a woman wearing a suicide vest who blew herself up after police launched a raid targeting the alleged mastermind of last Friday's massacre in Paris.
The Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement that three of the five were arrested by SWAT teams in an apartment in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, while two others were detained nearby. The statement did not identify the arrested suspects or the two who died. As of 9:30 a.m. local time, at least one other person was still holed up in the apartment, more than five hours after the raid began.
Earlier Wednesday, a senior police official told the Associated Press he believed Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian ISIS militant, was inside the apartment with five other heavily armed people. The official, who was informed routinely about the operation, said scores of police stormed the building and were met with unexpectedly violent resistance.
Another police official told AP that four police officers were injured in the confrontation. The severity of their injuries was not known.
Police vans and fire trucks rushed to the scene north of Paris, just over a mile from the Stade de France stadium, which was targeted by three suicide bombers during Friday's attacks. Riot police cleared people from the streets, pointing guns at curious residents to move them off the roads.
Residents said an initial explosion shook the neighborhood at about 4 a.m. (10 p.m. EST).
"Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire," said Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives in the neighborhood.
Another witness, Amine Guizani, said he heard the sound of grenades and automatic gunfire.
"They were shooting for an hour. Nonstop. There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again," Guizani said.
Sporadic bangs and explosions continued, and at 7:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. EST) at least seven explosions shook the center of Saint-Denis. Associated Press reporters at the scene could hear what sounded like grenade blasts from the direction of the standoff.
One local resident posted a 10-second video of the scene on her street near the siege. A series of bangs sounding like automatic weapons fire could be heard. The message accompanying the tweet translates to "It's an intervention by police ... street closed, officers, etc."
Investigators have identified 27-year-old Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of the attacks that killed 129 and wounded at least 350 others.
 Seven attackers died in Friday's gun-and-bomb rampage through Paris. Police had said before the raids that they were hunting for two fugitives suspected of taking part as well as any accomplices. That would bring the number of attackers to at least nine.
French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium.
However, there have been gaps in officials' public statements, which have never fully disclosed how many attackers took part in the deadly rampage.
On Tuesday, officials said they now believe at least one other attacker was involved and they were working to identify and track down that suspect. Three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details about the ongoing investigation.
Surveillance video obtained by the AP also indicated that a team of three attackers carried out the shootings at one of the cafes. The video was among evidence authorities used in concluding that at least one other attacker was at large, the French officials indicated.
The brief clip shows two black-clad gunmen with automatic weapons calmly firing on the bar then returning toward a waiting car, whose driver was maneuvering behind them. Authorities believe the car is the same black SEAT-make vehicle that was found Saturday with three Kalashnikovs inside.
Police have identified one subject of their manhunt as Salah Abdeslam, whom French police accidentally permitted to cross into Belgium on Saturday. One of his brothers, Brahim, blew himself up in Paris.