From Washington D.C. to New Hampshire and Iowa, the specter of ISIS can't help but be top-of-mind for policy makers and Presidential candidates.
It's framing arguments over immigration and foreign travel to this country by people displaced by the chaos in the Middle East.
"When it comes to refugees, we have one of the most rigorous screening processes for refugees that's ever existed,” says San Diegan Nathan Fletcher, a former Marine counterintelligence specialist who is decorated for combat tours in Iraq.
“It's a multiyear process that involves countless steps,” Fletcher added Friday during a “Politically Speaking” recording session. "A lot of times when we're talking about refugees, we're talking about people like the Iraq interpreters who worked for me as a Marine when I was overseas, who put their life on the line for Americans.
“And we gave them our word that ‘If you help us and you're ever in danger, we will be there to make sure you're safe.’ And I think that we can insure security and insure freedom without violating our core principles."
He said he was “tremendously disappointed” by legislation the House of Representatives passed two weeks before the San Bernardino massacre that effectively would block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from coming here.
Administration critics want to cut money that might go to such resettlements from the State Department's worldwide refugee program next year.
“You know, what happened to ‘Bring us your tired, your huddled masses, those yearning to breathe freedom’?” said Fletcher, a member of the Truman National Security Project’s board of advisers. “That’s who we are as a people.”
"Politically Speaking" airs on NBC 7 Sunday morning at 9 after "Meet the Press."
