From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By JASON HOPKINS

Immigration experts are warning that a reported Biden administration plan to import Palestinians as refugees would pose a unique threat to the United States.

Internal federal government documents leaked to the media on Tuesday indicated that the Biden White House is considering options on how to provide permanent safe haven to Palestinians living in war-torn Gaza. While no official plan has been announced or implemented, many in the government and immigration field have sounded the alarm on the potential consequences of such a move.

Experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation framed the reported plan as contrary to the country’s interests, warned of the risks of importing poorly-vetted foreign nationals with potential terror ties and encouraged the Biden administration to instead relocate these refugees to a nearby region within the Middle East.

“This is an absurd plan that places woke ideology above the public safety and national security concerns of American citizens,” Matt O’Brien, director of investigations for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told  the DCNF.

O’Brien noted that Hamas is no longer just a designated terrorist organization in the Gaza strip, but the official government of the enclave: “That means an inordinate number of Gazans are going to have direct ties to Hamas — because they voted it into power — and it will be impossible to vet them because we can’t trust records compiled by their chosen government,” he said.

“The smarter thing to do would be to arrange for a third country in the Middle East to provide temporary refuge to any Gazan’s who are allegedly in need of protection,” he continued. “But allowing Gazans into the U.S. in large numbers will only set America up for a large-scale national security disaster.”

Congressional leaders have also noted the ideological extremism in the Gazan population, and what that could mean for everyday Americans if they are welcomed here en masse.

Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst led a delegation of 34 Republican senators earlier this week in demanding President Joe Biden stop his purported plan. In their letter to the president, the senators noted the incredibly high number of Gazans currently supporting Hamas and how, because of the numerous logistical hurdles that come with importing migrants from a war-torn region halfway around the world, it would be nearly impossible to conduct proper vetting of all of them.

“We are confused as to why the United States is willing to accept Gazan refugees when even nearby Arab countries supportive of the Palestinian cause refuse to take them in due to security concerns,” the senators wrote.

Their letter demanded answers on how many Gazans the administration wants to accept and how exactly applicants will be screened to ensure no one with terrorist sympathies is allowed into the U.S.

If polling in the region is accurate, the American government will have a difficult time weeding out those who have extremists ties.

A survey released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research in March found that 71% of Palestinians supported Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre on Israeli civilians. A mere 5% of the Palestinians surveyed said they believed the Oct. 7 attack to be a war crime.

Polls conducted in months past also indicated a rise in support for Hamas among the Gazan population after the Oct. 7 massacre.

“Every American should be deeply concerned about reports that the Biden administration is planning on implementing a program to bring Gazans into the United States,” Eric Ruark, director of research and public relations for NumbersUSA, stated to the DCNF.

Ruark echoed calls to relocate Gazans displaced by the fighting to a nearby region, in lieu of using the crisis as another way to bring more foreign nationals permanently into the U.S. He predicted that the administration would make a humanitarian argument in favor of relocating Gazans to the U.S., but added that the White House’s border policies made it clear that “humanitarianism is the least of its priorities.”

Egypt has long maintained security measures to keep Gazans from entering the Sinai, including a concrete wall topped with concertina wire and military personnel at the Rafah border.

It remains to be seen how exactly the Biden administration would go about bringing the Gazan refugees over. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

One proposal involves implementing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to accept those with American ties and already have escaped into Egypt, according to government documents reviewed by CBS News. Top administration officials have also reportedly discussed processing Gazans as refugees if they have American relatives.

The Palestinians who pass a slate of security, medical and eligibility screenings would qualify for refugee status, which can then offer them permanent residency, resettlement benefits and a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

All the logistics that come with such strategies, however, would require coordination and cooperation with Egypt, a bordering Arab country that has so far remained vehemently opposed to accepting a large number of Gazans — a detail that isn’t lost on critics of the Biden administration’s plan.

“Egypt and other Arab countries are refusing to take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza,” RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE), said in a statement to the DCNF. “Instead of recognizing why that is and acting in our national interest, Biden wants to ramp up the dangerous trend of bringing in unvetted and potentially dangerous individuals who hate us.”

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By JAKE SMITH

The parents of an American-Israeli hostage in Gaza are doing everything in their power to bring him back home since the Israel-Hamas war began more than 200 days ago, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Edan Alexander, 20, is one of five American hostages currently being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His parents, Adi and Yael, have been meeting with U.S. and Israeli officials to discuss how to get him home as international negotiators rush to reach a deal with Hamas that would see the release of hostages in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.

“They’ve been constantly optimistic for months now since the beginning of January, and I know that they keep negotiating, although Hamas, sometimes they’ve stopped negotiating,” Adi told the DCNF. “But right now it feels like it’s a perfect storm. And everything needs to come kind of together. Even if it’s a small humanitarian deal that can open the gate for the bigger deal, we need to start with that. Just to kind of strike the first small deal.”

There are approximately 128 hostages being held by Hamas, including Israeli and foreign civilians and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

The current proposal being negotiated would see a 40-day ceasefire in exchange for up to 33 hostages currently in Hamas captivity, with the possibility of a longer-term ceasefire should both sides uphold the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The following phases of the ceasefire could possibly extend up to a year.

Edan was born in Tel Aviv and brought to the United States before his first birthday, growing up mostly in New Jersey, Yael and Adi told the DCNF. He joined the IDF after graduating from high school and was serving at a small base near the border of Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping hundreds of others.

“Before 7 a.m., he’s calling me. And he was yelling, ‘Mom. It’s like a war here. I’m seeing terrible stuff. You cannot believe what I’m seeing,” Yael told the DCNF. “And then I’m like, you’ll be ok, you just protect yourself. You will be okay … I told him that I love him. And that’s it. This is the last time that I heard him.”

Israeli intelligence later contacted Yael and Adi and told them Edan had been among those kidnapped during the attacks, showing them bodycam footage recovered from Oct. 7 depicting him being arrested and taken by Hamas operatives, the parents told the DCNF.

Yael and Adi have since spent their time raising awareness about their son and the hostages in news conferences and rallies with the other hostage families.

“We met with President Biden twice, with Vice President Kamala Harris twice, and numerous times with [White House National Security Advisor] Jake Sullivan and with [CIA Director] Bill Burns,” Adi told the DCNF. Yael added that they have a weekly update call with the State Department.

Yael has also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the family speaks with Israeli officials when visiting the region. Conversations on the Israeli side are highly sensitive and guarded to ensure vital information isn’t leaked, they told the DCNF.

“We try to keep them private and yes, a lot of confidential things are being shared there. So it’s a little bit different,” Adi told the DCNF. “It’s also that the Israelis have to have bigger fish to fry.”

Though Hamas has previously rejected several proposals, there’s some hope on the U.S. and Israeli side that they’re closing in on reaching a deal, Yael and Adi told the DCNF. Sullivan told MSNBC during an interview on April 26 that there was “new momentum” in negotiations.

Having shared the common struggle of knowing their relatives are being held by a terrorist organization in currently one the most deadly places in the world has brought many of the families closer together, Yael and Adi told the DCNF.

“It’s unreal, all the stories and everything. All the families now we are like all together, and we’re like big family, these people that I never met before, and now I’m feeling the connection with them,” Yael told the DCNF. “I just want to spend time with them because they get it.”

Yael and Adi told the DCNF that, above all, they are looking forward to their son coming home so that the family can resume some sense of normalcy. Adi joked that they’d take a trip to the Bahamas and help Edan start applying for colleges.

“I don’t think I’m gonna stop holding him,” Yael said.