"We don't have it under control," Mr. Michael Steinback, Assistant Director for the FBI told the House Homeland Security committee in February. "Absolutely, we're doing the best we can. If I were to say that we had it under control, then I would say I know of every single individual traveling. I don't. And I don't know every person there and I don't know everyone coming back. So it's not even close to being under control."
The chairman of the Homeland Security committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), asked officials from DHS, FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), "if bringing in Syrian refugees pose a greater risk to Americans?" Steinback responded, "Yes, I'm concerned. We'll have to go take a look at those lists and go through all of those intelligence holdings and be very careful to try and identify connections to foreign terrorist groups."
Last week Rep. McCaul renewed the concern that ISIS wants to use the refugee crisis to sneak into western countries. "The President wants to surge thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States, in spite of consistent intelligence community and federal law enforcement warnings that we do not have the intelligence needed to vet individuals from the conflict zone. We also know that ISIS wants to use refugee routes as cover to sneak operatives into the West," he said in a statement.
