President Barack Obama will veto a House Republican proposal that would sharply tighten screening of refugees from Syria and Iraq, according to the White House, which said the bill wouldn't improve U.S. security after last week's terrorist attacks in Paris.
All refugees already "undergo the most rigorous and thorough security screening of anyone admitted into the United States," the Obama administration said in a statement Wednesday. The plan would "undermine our partners in the Middle East and Europe in addressing the Syrian refugee crisis."
The House plans to vote Thursday on the plan, which would block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the country unless four top U.S. law-enforcement and national security officials affirm to Congress that they aren't a security threat. One of the Islamic State extremists who staged last week's Paris attacks, killing at least 129 people, may have entered Europe posing as a Syrian refugee.