The empathy we all feel for refugees and immigrants from war-torn countries is real. They are victims of horrific circumstance, their own governments having failed them completely. It is not the least bit cowardly or inappropriate for them to flee and seek safe haven elsewhere for themselves and their families. Countries around the world, including the US, have sympathized with their plight, accepted them in, and provided welcome assistance as any caring nation would. The US admitted 85,000 refugees in 2016, and more than 25,000 already this year.
In the reporting of the President’s action* to temporarily restrict admission to these refugees to the US, the news media stressed the lack of compassion and assistance for the refugees and often provided no other context for the story. A negative reaction from people was both expected and, unfortunately, encouraged. In this case, there was nothing “fake” about what was reported in the news, but gross omissions from the full story achieved the same effect. Those omissions were intended, for political purposes, to transform the reality of a difficult problem with a complex set of variables, into a “dumbed down”, one-way emotional avalanche. To a large extent, it worked. By pounding incessantly on the drum of compassion, politicians and the media encourage many to retreat into melodrama rather than emerge to face some very hard facts.
The fact is that terrorists have been successfully hiding themselves within the general refugee flight in order to transport and organize their activities around the world. This essential truth was minimized and/or glossed over entirely in most of the reporting. There are numerous well-documented cases of terrorists migrating with or posing as refugees in France, Germany and yes, the United States. To deny this is occurring, or to minimize its significance, is cowering from reality to avoid confronting a hard problem. Some of those cases have directly resulted in the violent death of innocent people. For a government whose first duty is to keep its people safe, the hijacking of our “safe harbor” passageway for refugees must take precedence in the policy-making process over compassion and the desire to help. If it doesn’t, our country can’t maintain the very level of safety and security the refugees are seeking. We must do our absolute best to keep those intending to do us harm from entering. Our lack of vigilance in this regard has already cost this country dearly.
These two competing goals, compassion for refugees, and blocking access to terrorists and their supporters has no easy solution, especially when trying to effect them both simultaneously. A little honesty by the news media on this point could have provided the public a greater appreciation of the problem. Less hysteria, both faux and real, might have been the result.
Stay tuned for “Part II” of this topic which will examine why we have borders and if we could live in a future without them.
*For those who haven’t had a chance to read the (rather lengthy) Executive Order, here’s a short summary:
Immigrants – For 90 days, entry into the US is suspended for anyone from 7 countries (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen) and no new visas for entry into the US will be issued to residents of those countries. The purpose of the 90 days is for DHS to come up with the list of things they want to know about visitors from each of these countries (first 30 days), and then for each of the countries to ramp-up their ability to supply that information (next 60 days). Only the people whose countries can supply the required DHS information will be allowed into the US at the end of the 90 day period. If need be, application can be made to the state department or DHS for a special Visa at any time (presumably for some sort of family emergency) so a person in the US from one of those 7 countries can go home and come back.
Refugees – For 120 days, the US Refugee Admissions Program is suspended while more comprehensive vetting procedures are developed and approved. For the country of Syria specifically, the refugee admission program is suspended indefinitely until sufficient changes are made.
The rest of the order lays out all the exception cases, provides context, and includes a lot of legalese.