Sydney Newton
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It seems the most discussed and debated question right now is whether we should let Syrian refugees into our country. After the tragedies in Paris, some people think it would be absolutely foolish to let potentially radical Muslims or potential terrorist into our country. These same people also fail to realize that the United States has one of the world’s toughest systems for background checks. But even so, the governors of more than 20 states have declared that they will not be accepting refugees, including Iowa’s Terry Branstad.
Most Republicans are using the fear of terrorists to fight against accepting refugees. Sen. Ted Cruz even proposed the idea of letting them in but only if they are Christian. Without even mentioning the bigotry of this statement, it’s not like horrible acts haven’t been committed by Christians in this very country: Dylan Roof, who killed nine people in a South Carolina church, was himself a member of a Lutheran congregation.
As President Obama said in a recent speech on the topic of excluding refugees by religion, “That’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, only 2 percent of the refugees who would be admitted to the United States are single males of combat age. This is odd, considering the people who are against the idea of letting refugees into the country think that the combat-age men should stay there and fight for their country.
When the picture of a Syrian child refugee lying dead on the beach spread across the nation, there was no talk of Islamophobia and anti-immigration. In order to not seem racist, the argument became, “We need to take care of our homeless first, so that’s why we can’t take in refugees.”
Of course, homelessness is a problem. This was a problem before we decided to take in refugees, but no one brought it up then. It shouldn’t take a terrorist attack like this to get America to start caring about the homeless. Doesn’t that say something about our country?
So, what happens now? Is it even legal for states to refuse refugees? The Constitution says that immigration is under the jurisdiction of the federal government. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Rep. Lou Barletta pointed out that “What would stop a terrorist, an ISIS member, to go to Somalia or to go to another country and come into America — so we need to look at the entire program.” It’s not fair to innocent people to be put under the “blanket of suspicion.”
I think this problem lies in our own country’s beliefs and today’s values. It’s not fair to blame our problems on an entire religion. I do believe we need to fix our own problems, but these have been recurring problems, and we shouldn’t let these refugees take blame for that.
There are many different paths our country can choose to go down now. It’s pretty naïve to say that the whole country will agree on something or that everyone will be pleased. I just hope that one day we will find peace with the decision.
