PoliticsSyriaRefugeesparis attacks

Here's A List Of The Democrats Who Voted To Shut The Door On Syrian Refugees

The White House said barring refugees would "unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world."
By 

Managing Editor, Breaking News, HuffPost

and

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

|

Forty-seven House Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in voting for a measure that would likely halt Syrian and Iraqi refugees from resettling in the United States.

The bill, which passed 289-137, was intended as a response to fears that ISIS militants could sneak into the U.S. by posing as refugees in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Security experts say such a scenario is unlikely. 

The legislation would toughen the already rigorous refugee screening process by calling for intelligence officials, law enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to officially certify that any individual seeking refuge from a war-torn country isn’t dangerous.

“It would close the program down for two years, if not more,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who voted against the measure. 

The White House has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would introduce “unnecessary and impractical requirements that would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world.” FBI Director James Comey expressed concern that the legislation would add serious hurdles to the visa waiver program, making it impossible for any refugees to enter the U.S. and affecting travelers from three dozen countries.

President Barack Obama remains adamant that he’ll fulfill his promise to within a year accept 10,000 of the more than 4 million Syrians who have fled years of civil war and terrorism. 

It’s not clear whether the legislation will reach Obama’s desk. Senate Democrats have vowed to block the bill. 

(Republican support for the bill was widely expected. You can see a full list of everyone who voted for the measure here.) 

Here are the 47 Democratic lawmakers who voted for the bill:

  1. Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3201
  2. Rep. Brad Ashford (Neb.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4155
  3. Rep. Ami Bera (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5716
  4. Rep. Sanford Bishop (Ga.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3631
  5. Rep. Julia Brownley (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5811
  6. Rep. Cheri Bustos (Ill.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5905
  7. Rep. John Carney (Del.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4165
  8. Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-1492
  9. Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4311
  10. Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3341
  11. Rep. Joe Courtney (Conn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2076
  12. Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-1640
  13. Rep. John Delaney (Md.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2721
  14. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4865
  15. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4906
  16. Rep. John Garamendi (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-1880
  17. Rep. Gwen Graham (Fla.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5235
  18. Rep. Gene Green (Texas) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-1688
  19. Rep. Janice Hahn (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-8220
  20. Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5541
  21. Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3335
  22. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-4146
  23. Rep. Bill Keating (Mass.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3111
  24. Rep. Ron Kind (Wis.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5506
  25. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5206
  26. Rep. Jim Langevin (R.I.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2735
  27. Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5701
  28. Rep. Dave Loebsack (Iowa) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-6576
  29. Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-8273
  30. Rep. Sean Maloney (N.Y.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5441
  31. Rep. Patrick Murphy (Fla.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3026
  32. Rep. Rick Nolan (Minn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-6211
  33. Rep. Donald Norcross (N.J.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-6501
  34. Rep. Scott Peters (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-0508
  35. Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2165
  36. Rep. Jared Polis (Colo.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2161
  37. Rep. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5516
  38. Rep. Raul Ruiz (Calif.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5330
  39. Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5261
  40. Rep. Kurt Schrader (Ore.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-5711
  41. Rep. David Scott (Ga.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2939
  42. Rep. Terri Sewell (Ala.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2665
  43. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-9888
  44. Rep. Louise Slaughter (N.Y.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-3615
  45. Rep. Marc Veasey (Texas) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-9897
  46. Rep. Filemon Vela (Texas) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-9901

  47. Rep. Tim Walz (Minn.) Twitter|Facebook
    Phone: 202-225-2472

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the state Rep. Brad Ashford represents and linked to the wrong Twitter account for Rep. Patrick Murphy. 

Read More On Refugees

Images Show How Syrian Refugees Live And Why They Left
(01 of27)
Open Image Modal
A man is helping out a baby as refugees from Afghanistan and Syria disembark from in a life boat on the shores of Lesbos near Skala Sikaminias, Greece on Nov. 10, 2015. Lesbos, the Greek vacation island in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, faces massive refugee flows from the Middle East countries. (credit:Etienne De Malglaive via Getty Images)
(02 of27)
Open Image Modal
A general view of a make-shift camp set up by mainly Syrian refugees at the Porte de Saint-Ouen in Paris, early on Oct. 2, 2015. (credit:JOEL SAGET via Getty Images)
(03 of27)
Open Image Modal
Lebanese forces walk at a burnt unofficial Syrian refugee camp in the Al-Marj area of Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, after a fire ripped through it on June 1, 2015, killing a baby and injuring several others. (credit:STR via Getty Images)
(04 of27)
Open Image Modal
A sick refugee is pulled while walking and waiting for a chance to cross the Serbian-Croatian border at the refugee camp of Bapska. (credit:Pacific Press via Getty Images)
(05 of27)
Open Image Modal
A man rests as he waits with other migrants and refugees at a registration camp after crossing the Greece-Macedonia border near Gevgelija on Nov. 14, 2015. (credit:DIMITAR DILKOFF via Getty Images)
(06 of27)
Open Image Modal
Doctors Without Borders staff assist a young girl in a wheelchair as she enters, along with other migrants and refugees, a registration camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija on Nov. 12, 2015. (credit:ROBERT ATANASOVSKI via Getty Images)
(07 of27)
Open Image Modal
A Syrian woman changes her child's diaper as migrants and refugees queue at a camp to register after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija on Sept. 22, 2015. (credit:NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV via Getty Images)
(08 of27)
Open Image Modal
Residents sit in a French class at the "Jungle," a migrant and refugee camp in Calais, on Oct. 30, 2015. (credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
(09 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian migrants and refugees march along the highway toward the Turkish-Greek border at Edirne on Sept. 18, 2015. (credit:BULENT KILIC via Getty Images)
(10 of27)
Open Image Modal
A photo taken on Nov. 5, 2015 shows the "Jungle" migrants camp in Calais. (credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
(11 of27)
Open Image Modal
A woman stands at the entrance of a tent in a makeshift camp in Grande-Synthe, France, on Oct. 20, 2015. (credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
(12 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian refugee kids, fled from their homes due to civil war in their homeland, play in Yayladagi YIBO camp in Hatay province of Turkey, on Oct. 25, 2015. (credit:Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(13 of27)
Open Image Modal
A photo taken on Nov. 12, 2015, shows a view of part of the "New Jungle" migrant camp in Calais. (credit:DENIS CHARLET via Getty Images)
(14 of27)
Open Image Modal
Migrants walk through a mud path of the "New Jungle" migrant camp in Calais, where thousands of refugees live with the hope of crossing the Channel to the U.K., on Oct. 21, 2015. (credit:PHILIPPE HUGUEN via Getty Images)
(15 of27)
Open Image Modal
An explosion rocks Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by the militants of Islamic State group on a People's Protection Unit position in the city center of Kobani, as seen from the outskirts of Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border, Oct. 20, 2014 in Sanliurfa province, Turkey. (credit:Gokhan Sahin via Getty Images)
(16 of27)
Open Image Modal
A Syrian man walks amid destruction in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 10, 2013. (credit:DIMITAR DILKOFF via Getty Images)
(17 of27)
Open Image Modal
A man carries a young girl who was injured in a reported barrel-bomb attack by government forces on June 3, 2014, in Kallaseh district in the northern city of Aleppo. (credit:BARAA AL-HALABI via Getty Images)
(18 of27)
Open Image Modal
A displaced Syrian child in a makeshift camp for Syrian refugees only miles from the on Nov. 12, 2013, in Majdal Anjar, Lebanon, only miles from the Syrian border. (credit:Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
(19 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian government troops sit atop a tank as they drive past a damaged building in Mleiha on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on Aug. 15, 2014. (credit:LOUAI BESHARA via Getty Images)
(20 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian children search for their belongings at a school following airstrikes by Syrian government forces on Dec. 22, 2013, in the northern Syrian city of Marea on the outskirts of Aleppo. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)
(21 of27)
Open Image Modal
A Syrian man holds a crying girl as he gestures following an air strike by government forces on the Sahour neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 6, 2014. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)
(22 of27)
Open Image Modal
A boy rides his cycles in the streets of the destroyed Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, Syria, on June 20, 2015. (credit:Ahmet Sik via Getty Images)
(23 of27)
Open Image Modal
A picture taken on Oct.14, 2014, shows a large explosion allegedly hitting a Syrian army military outpost in the southern part of the city of Maarat al-Numan in the Idlib province. (credit:GHAITH OMRAN via Getty Images)
(24 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian girls, carrying school bags provided by UNICEF, walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings on their way home from school on March 7, 2015, in al-Shaar neighborhood, in the rebel-held side of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (credit:ZEIN AL-RIFAI via Getty Images)
(25 of27)
Open Image Modal
Syrian schoolchildren stand next to a pile of classroom desks as they attend school in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 25, 2015. (credit:YASIN AKGUL via Getty Images)
(26 of27)
Open Image Modal
Men search for their relatives among the bodies of Syrian civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq river, in the grounds of the courtyard of the Yarmouk School, in the Bustan al-Qasr district of Aleppo on Jan. 30, 2013. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)
(27 of27)
Open Image Modal
A Syrian Kurdish boy sits on a destroyed tank in the Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on March 27, 2015. (credit:YASIN AKGUL via Getty Images)

Our 2024 Coverage Needs You

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

to keep our news free for all.

Support HuffPost
Suggest a correction
|
Submit a tip