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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Obama: Religious test like the one Ted Cruz wants for refugees is 'shameful'

Los Angeles Times
By Christi Parsons
November 16, 2016

President Obama took issue with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) here on Monday for suggesting what Obama called a "religious test" for refugees trying to come to the U.S. from the war-torn Middle East.

Obama's remarks followed Cruz’s suggestion that Christians entering the U.S. don't pose a threat as Muslim refugees from Syria do.

"That's shameful," Obama said, speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the Group of 20 summit here. "That's not American. It's not who we are. We don't add religious tests to our compassion."

The president never said Cruz's name, but he mentioned critics who “themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution.” Cruz has said that his father left Cuba for the U.S. in the 1950s to get away from torture and oppression.

After the Paris attacks on Friday, Cruz said at a campaign event in South Carolina that there is "no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror," according to the Washington Post. He also called for Muslim refugees from Syria to be barred from entering the country.

"If there were a group of radical Christians pledging to murder anyone who had a different religious view than they, we would have a different national security situation," Cruz said.

In September, as the refugee crisis ballooned in Europe, Obama ordered his administration to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S., more than the 1,300 who have come to the country since the start of the civil war in Syria four years but far fewer than advocates had called for, and a tiny fraction of the millions who have flooded into Europe.


Because of intensive vetting due to security concerns, the process to approve a refugee for resettlement takes 18-24 months, the Obama administration has said.

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