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The United States is a proud nation of immigrants. We’ve welcomed refugees and immigrants for generations, forming a culturally diverse and open country unlike any other in the world. My own grandmother legally emigrated from Colombia in search of greater freedom and opportunity for her family.

However, the threat posed by Islamist extremists is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Months ago, ISIS publicly stated it planned on embedding fighters within the refugee flows bound for Europe in order to carry out terrorist attacks; which they did in Paris last month. ISIS clearly has stated its intentions to attack the United States and encouraged its followers to do the same.

As a base of comparison, the United States welcomed tens of thousands of political refugees following the Vietnam War; however, the Viet Cong wasn’t threatening to embed with these populations in order to hit American soft targets – which clearly is the intention of ISIS. President Obama’s argument in favor of his Syrian refugee policy based on “American values” ignores the clear and present danger posed by ISIS and other Islamist extremists.

In fact, Presidents Carter and Obama have faced this predicament before. During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, President Carter banned Iranians from entering the United States with very limited exceptions. In 2011, the Obama State Department stopped processing Iraq refugee requests for six months after the FBI uncovered evidence that several dozen terrorists from Iraq had infiltrated the United States via the refugee program, some of which are suspected of killing PA National Guard Soldiers. It’s blatantly irresponsible, dangerous, and hypocritical that President Obama refuses similarly to pause the Syrian refugee resettlement program given the current threat, and then subsequently demonizes those who prefer to proceed with caution.

The President’s own national security advisors repeatedly have warned that the U.S. government lacks the resources and information needed to fully vet Syrian refugees. When testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee in October, FBI Director James Comey said that his agency, which is responsible for the vetting of refugees, “can only query against that which we have collected… We can query our databases until the cows come home but nothing will show up because we have no record of that person…You can only query what you have collected.”

I’ve absolutely no reason to believe that we can ensure that those seeking refugee status from Syria will be properly vetted. That’s why I joined 289 of my colleagues in a veto-proof, bipartisan majority in approving legislation to pause the Syrian refugee process until an effective vetting system is in place.

Again, I fully recognize America’s unique quality as the land of immigrants. No matter what happens with Syria, the U.S. will still admit tens of thousands of refugees this year from all corners of the globe. I empathize with those who intend no harm and would just like to escape the brutality that has befallen Syria. The United States already has donated more than $4.5 billion to assist Syrian refugees - more than any other country.

But the safety of the American people must be our top priority - period. We must protect our citizens from those who take advantage of our generosity to commit acts of terrorism. For this reason, the President should temporarily suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees until we know more about this threat and an effective screening plan is in place.