Jim Rosica
State Rep. Matt Gaetz has started a petition drive to “block the entry of all Syrian refugees into the United States,” he said in a Monday email.
“America has a rich history of accepting foreign refugees, but when it comes to the safety and security of the American people, there are some risks we simply can’t take,” he wrote.
The link to the petition redirects to Gaetz’s website for his 2016 state Senate campaign. A disclaimer at the bottom says, “Political advertisement paid for and approved by Matt Gaetz, Republican, for State Senate.”
Gaetz is running against Bay County Commissioner George Gainer in the Republican primary for the Florida Panhandle seat in what has become a race to define who’s the more conservative candidate.
Matt Gaetz is seeking to replace his father, the term-limited Don Gaetz, a former Senate President. No Democrat has filed to run for the seat, located in one of the most conservative regions of the state.
It’s been over a week since multiple attacks in Paris, since claimed by the Islamic State terror group, killed 130 people. That has spurred a debate over whether to accept refugees from Syria, where thousands still are fleeing the jihadist regime.
In an effort to burnish his own conservative bona fides, Gaetz mentions a congressional effort to subject Syrian refugees to enhanced background checks as a way to filter out terrorists.
“While this is a step in the right direction, it doesn’t go far enough,” Gaetz said in the email. “Just one person that slips through the cracks could carry out a similar attack on Americans, and we can’t afford that risk.
“Our elected officials … need to know that this proposal doesn’t provide Americans the protection we need, and that won’t happen unless we tell them,” he added, asking readers to add their names to the online petition, “demanding that Congress and the President block the entry of all Syrian refugees into the United States.”
