Issue 49.15
The recent attacks in Paris which consumed the news media (and attacks in many other places which have been largely ignored), are bringing to the public consciousness a very real concern – whether or not to accept refuges from a known terrorist state and allow them into the general population. This is a question that many nations are facing. Some are choosing to opt out – no refugees allowed because some may be terrorists with ulterior motives. Others believe that we must provide safe haven for those who would otherwise suffer from atrocities and civil war in their own countries in spite of the fact that some might be terrorists or might be recruited as terrorists after arriving here.
In Europe, the migration of Syrians (and Iraqis and other refugees) is fairly uncontrolled, because they can walk between countries or get a ride on a boat or ship. Once in the new country, they can try to hide or they can ask for asylum which gives them more or less permanent resident status. Many ask for relocation to other countries in Europe or to the US. Here in the US, the process is much different. Those refugees seeking a new life here must go through a rigorous screening process and must be sponsored by one of seven humanitarian groups of which one is Jewish and most of the rest are Christian. The refugees asking to be accepted here are screened more thoroughly than any other travelers to the US.
The basis of all this chaos is the war that ISIS is waging against Christians and any Muslims that do not accept the extreme views of ISIS. In fact, most refugees are fleeing because they are in danger from ISIS, not because they are part of it. Could some terrorists slip through the system by lying about their loyalties? That is a possibility that should be considered in our policies. Yes. But how likely is that, when compared to other sources of danger.
Here are some statistics that may surprise you from “The Guardian”, an acknowledged slightly liberal news organization that nevertheless reports such things reasonably accurately. Of the nearly 800,000 refugees from all countries that have been allowed into the US since 9/11, only three have been arrested on terrorism charges. The rest of the people arrested have been here undocumented (they snuck in) or on travel or work visas or are US citizens. Only 2,000 of these 800,000 people, most of them women and children, came from Syria. The current plan to accept an additional 10,000 over the next year while not lessening the standards by which they are admitted, is still a small number compared to countries like Germany and Sweden who have granted asylum to tens of thousands and have many more undocumented refugees living there. The European Union, by comparison, has committed to relocate 160,000 of these people to their countries during the next year – and many of them have suffered terrorist attacks like France has. Italy and Greece estimate they are currently dealing with 817,000 refugees, because they are the closest non-Islamic countries to Syria other than Israel (which does not welcome them).
Any time there is an event that shocks the populace, we see grandstanding, hyperbole, politics and knee-jerk reactions that usually try to place blame and almost always destroy our principles, integrity and freedoms. I have often said that the Patriot Act is an effort to take the freedoms of and punish the citizens of the US for the actions of those who are not citizens. We run the risk of making the same mistakes in this situation. Yes we should check these refugees carefully before letting them in. But we should also realize that the real danger is our uncontrolled borders that allow millions of people to come here without those checks and to stay with impunity regardless of their political or personal intentions. Compare that to the few thousand we are considering in the current crisis. Not only terrorists, but criminals have raised the crime and fear level in our country. These people came not through refugee systems, but through porous borders and without documentation. That is where the real danger lies.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.