Obama visits refugee center, says U.S. must welcome evacuees

Visiting refugee children at a shelter in Malaysia, President Obama said Saturday that America’s leaders shouldn’t fear young Syrians and others from war-torn nations seeking to emigrate to the U.S.

“American leadership is us caring about people who have been forgotten, or who have been discriminated against, or who have been tortured,” Mr. Obama told reporters at the refugee center in Kuala Lumpur. “That’s American leadership. That’s when we’re the shining light on the hill. Not when we respond on the basis of fear.”

The president is embroiled in a long-distance battle with lawmakers in Washington, and with a majority of governors, over his plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees. A bipartisan majority of House lawmakers, concerned about the danger posed by the Islamic State, voted this week to delay the refugee program until the administration addresses security questions.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican and presidential candidate, said the refugees should be resettled in majority Muslim countries, and noted that the U.S. spends far more than other nations on humanitarian aid.

“I get tired of President Obama and Hillary Clinton lecture the American people that we are somehow ungenerous when we are providing for these people, but we don’t want to risk the safety of our children here at home,” Mr. Cruz said Friday at a campaign event.

Mr. Obama said he won’t be deterred by the opposition at home to the Syrian refugees.

“As long as I’m president, we’re going to keep on stepping up and making sure that America remains as it has always been, a place where people who, in other parts of the world, are subject to discrimination or violence, that they have in America a friend and a place of refuge,” Mr. Obama said. “We have shown that the we can welcome refugees and ensure our security – that there’s no contradiction.”

The president met with young refugees at the Dignity for Children Foundation, including many Muslims who have fled strife in Myanmar. He said the children are “indistinguishable from any child in America.”

“The notion that somehow we would be fearful of them, that our politics would somehow leave them to turn our sights away from their plight, is not representative of the best of who we are,” Mr. Obama said.

Referring to a 16-year-old girl who left Myanmar at age 8, Mr. Obama said, “That’s the face of not only refugees from Myanmar. That’s the face of Syrian children, and Iraqi children, children from war-torn regions of Sudan. This is who we want to help. This is the face of people all around the world who still look to the United States as a beacon of hope.”