By Mark Hosenball and David Ljunggren
WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Canada is proceeding
with plans to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees, but the country's
background-vetting program is under scrutiny by a U.S.
congressional panel, with a hearing set for Wednesday, amid
lawmaker concerns about U.S. security.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee has questions about
the Ottawa government's intake of refugees by the end of
February and the possibility that violent militants could mix in
and cross the long, largely porous U.S.-Canada border.
At the public hearing, senators will question U.S. and
Canadian experts and a U.S. Border Patrol officer on Canada's
"fast track" resettlement program. Canada's government turned
down an invitation to send a spokesperson to the session.
"We have been in frequent touch with members of the U.S.
administration who are satisfied with what we are doing ... if
the U.S. Senate wants to engage in these activities, that is
their right, of course," John McCallum, Canada's immigration
minister, told reporters on Tuesday.
Initial inquiries show Canada's background checks on
refugees are less rigorous than the 18- to 24-month vettings
done by U.S. authorities before letting any Syrian refugee set
foot on American soil, congressional aides said.
Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already
delayed his government's program. It had targeted resettlement
of the 25,000 by the end of 2015. Now the target is February.
Still, congressional aides said, U.S. officials remain wary
of Canada's screening, noting it is nearly impossible for
foreign governments to verify the backgrounds, and identities of
refugees, given Syria's dysfunctional government.
One way Canada is trying to allay concerns about
infiltration of the refugee flow by violent militants is by
limiting refugees it admits to women, children and lesbian,
bisexual, gay and transgender individuals.
Canada can vet would-be refugees in U.S. and Canadian law
enforcement and intelligence databases, but congressional aides
said these databases may omit critical and derogatory
information on would-be immigrants' previous lives in Syria.
Canada's public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, told
reporters on Tuesday that Canada had been "very strong in
putting together the security system" used to vet the refugees,
and had made a strong effort to keep U.S. Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson and President Barack Obama fully informed.
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Andrew Hay)