RELEASE: The Solution to the Gaza Refugee Problem is Not in America

Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District GOP-endorsed candidate, Dalia Al-Aqidi, released the following statement regarding CBS News and New York Post reports that the Biden administration is considering bringing Palestinians from Gaza to the U.S. as refugees and offering them a permanent safe haven:

I am a firm believer in legal immigration for those who have skills that would benefit the U.S. and for those who want to assimilate and become part of the American cultural fabric.

When I was 20 years old and fled my home in Baghdad, Iraq in 1988, the idea that I would one day be able to legally immigrate to the United States was just a dream. There was a long and deliberate process to obtain a green card. When I finally became a citizen in 1993, I had already embarked on a career in international journalism and I was engaged in pushing back against the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. I took my oath of citizenship seriously and I have always believed in giving back to this country that allowed me to live the American dream.

But as I wrote last week in the New York Post:

President Biden’s new Gaza policy relies on a Palestinian society that only exists in Western Democrats’ fantasies.

Despite President Biden’s claim that “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not Hamas" and "Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people,” or Secretary of State Blinken’s belief that the majority of people in Gaza “are just like our families,” such statements are untethered from reality.

One need not look further than the recent poll published by the well-respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR). According to the March survey, 71% of Palestinians back the October 7 massacres. They also chose “armed struggle,” not negotiations or non-violent resistance, as the most popular strategy to end Israeli occupation among 46% of Palestinians. Fifty-nine percent say Hamas should control Gaza after the war is over.

So much for the majority of Palestinians being just like us.… Put simply, the new lunacy they are peddling as policy is a recipe for repeating disasters.

For weeks we’ve watched pro-terrorist, anti-Israel, and antisemitic mobs take over college campuses in predominantly blue states across the country. We’ve seen the feckless responses from President Biden’s various mouthpieces and Democrats in Congress, down to the incompetent statements and shameful inaction from governors, mayors, and university presidents. Apparently, the Biden administration’s response is akin to, “hold my beer. I’m going to inflame the situation.”

Let me be clear: Importing a population from Gaza where according to their own polls 70% approve of massacring, raping, and beheading Jewish women and children and taking scores of civilians hostages—including Americans—would pose a grave threat to national security.

No Arab state neighboring Israel has agreed to take in Palestinian refugees on a temporary basis, even if paid for by international donors. The United States has considerable leverage we could apply given the economic aid we provide to Israel’s neighbors. Unfortunately, the concepts of leverage and deterrence appear to be entirely foreign to Team Biden.

If the United States is to take in scores of people from the Middle East, it should start with the five American hostages still being held in Gaza by the terrorist group, Hamas. That will only happen when we stand with our Israeli allies and pressure Hamas and their patrons in Iran and Qatar. I call on the Biden administration to firmly and unequivocally stand with the embattled Jewish communities across the United States, rather than Hamas and their supporters.

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