PRO/CON: Should U.S. governors be able to block Syrian refugees?
PRO: Governors want to prevent attacks in U.S.
President Barack Obama is once again faced with a problem of his own making. He has no one to blame but himself if some people no longer trust what he says.
For seven years, the president has dismissed and insulted those who raise reasonable concerns about his plans and decisions.
When those concerns have turned out to be correct, as they often have, he ignores the evidence. Instead, he insults those who do not agree with him and claims that everything is going well. Remember, for example, his assertion that the Islamic State group was being “contained." The attacks that followed that claim certainly proved those who questioned him were right to be worried.
So when 31 governors turned their thumbs down on Obama’s decision to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees and distribute them among the states, they were sending a message. They were saying, "We do not trust you to tell the truth. We do not trust you to screen the refugees as carefully as you say you will."
Screening Refugees Might Not Work
Let us be clear: Every governor knows this is a country of immigrants. They know we have long prided ourselves on offering generous help to the world's refugees.
They also know that the vast majority of the Syrian refugees would be honest and law-abiding. Most are simply fleeing a bloody civil war they had nothing to do with starting. Many are fleeing Islamic State, which has taken over parts of their war-torn country. They would be thrilled to get a chance at a new start in America.
Even a vast majority is not 100 percent, however. If even a few Islamic State fighters slipped in with the refugees, that could be a huge problem. The danger of that happening is worth taking seriously.
However, Obama simply dismissed such concerns and ridiculed those who brought them up. “Apparently they are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” the president said. He then claimed that the screening process would be the most careful and thorough process "conceivable.”
Is that so? Remember when Obama boasted how well the government's healthcare website would work? It turned out to have all sorts of serious problems. So what about refugee screening technology? Why should we assume that would work any better?
Under normal conditions, most of us would take the president’s word. However, this president has misled the public so often that he has not earned the benefit of the doubt — and he is not getting it.
The governors resisting the refugee resettlement simply do not trust Obama’s claim that all the refugees will be screened extremely carefully. The public does not believe the president either. Around 60 percent say they oppose the settling of Syrian refugees in their states.
A Lack Of Trust
This same president keeps trying to move prisoners from Guantanamo, Cuba, to prisons in the United States. The prisoners are all suspected of being militant Islamic fighters or their supporters. The president has repeatedly assured governors the prisoners are not a threat. He continues to make that claim even though more than 100 of those who have been released have rejoined militant groups.
To make matters worse, the government has been making ridiculous statements about the Syrian refugees.
For example, it says that only 2 percent of Syrian refugees admitted to this country since 2011 are “military-age males.” So what? Anyone watching the news can see that many of those currently fleeing Syria are young or middle-aged men.
Even if the government restricted the 10,000 refugees to “widows and orphans,” widows have brothers and orphans have uncles. Wouldn’t there be a need to let other family members in, to help provide for the resettled women and children? And, of course, some militant attacks have been carried out by women.
Here is the point: Those who are frustrated with the refugee stalemate should be angry at the president, not the governors. Obama entered the White House determined to prove that big government can do big things well. Instead, he has increased Americans’ long-held skepticism of big government.
I, for one, hope the president, Congress and state governors can find a solution that will allow us to offer shelter to the refugees. The lack of trust in this case is not targeted so much at the Syrian refugees themselves. Rather, it is aimed at the White House.
ABOUT THE WRITER: Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in metropolitan Dallas. He holds a doctorate in humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. Readers may write him at IPI, 1320 Greenway Drive, Irving, TX 75038.This essay is available to Tribune News Service subscribers. Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Tribune or Newsela.
CON: Syrian refugees need our help
Thirty-one U.S. governors are refusing to let Syrian refugees settle in their states. The refugees are fleeing Syria's bloody civil war.
The governors are making a big mistake, and not just because they should be helping people in need. Their behavior is actually helping Islamic State.
Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is a militant group. Its members are trying to spread their own brand of Islam throughout the Middle East. They have conquered territory in Syria and Iraq, where they are now battling both Western and Arab forces.
The group's dream is to establish an Islamic state shaped after its own beliefs. Their fighters see themselves as being at war with the West.
Playing Into Fear
The first thing we need to understand is that Islamic State is actually weak. The group claims responsibility for many attacks it had nothing to do with, so it can appear stronger than it actually is.
Most recent attacks in Western countries have actually been the acts of do-it-yourself militants unconnected to any group. But Islamic State does not want us to know that. It wants us to believe its fighters are everywhere. It wants us to be afraid.
Islamic State also wants us to get angry and turn against Muslims everywhere. The group's fighters want to make Muslims the enemy of the West. They believe if that happens, millions of peaceful Muslims living around the world will join them.
Their goal is quite simple. They aim to divide us. They would like nothing more than to have the Western world accept presidential candidate Donald Trump’s ideas about tracking Muslims in the U.S. They want us to see the world in terms of us against them.
Islamic State also want us to turn away Syrian and other Muslim refugees.
Eleven million Syrians have fled their homes since civil war broke out in 2011. More than 250,000 people have died in that war.
The fighting began as an attempt to remove Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, who many see as undemocratic and oppressive. Over time, Islamic State fighters have become increasingly involved in the war.
Islamic State also would like to see Assad gone, but its goal is not greater democracy. Instead, the group hopes to seize power for itself. Many Syrians have fled the territories the group's fighters now control, where they have introduced extremely harsh laws.
The current refugee crisis is the biggest since World War II, with Syrians now making up the world’s largest refugee population. Most are struggling to find new homes in Europe, and the United States needs to help.
Living Up To Our Ideals
The U.S. government has pledged to take in 10,000 new Syrian refugees, many of whom are fleeing Islamic State. The refugees are supposed to be distributed among the states.
Many state governors are resisting these plans, however.
The governors say they are afraid that Islamic State fighters will sneak in among the refugees. Their fear is not justified. The U.S. refugee-screening process is extremely difficult to get through. Most refugees stay in camps for months to years while their personal stories are checked.
About half of these refugees are children, while another quarter are elderly. Almost all of the adults are either mothers or couples coming with children.
The 31 governors who are refusing to take in these war-torn refugees are not only going against our ideals as a nation. They are also helping Islamic State by dividing us even further. They are helping Islamic State by showing that our leaders want to turn away these desperate families, simply because they are Muslim.
They are also sending a message to the U.S. public that it is acceptable to fear and hate a group of people. We should not allow them to do that. Every time that kind of thing has happened in this country, we eventually realized we were wrong.
Let us not forget what is written on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Can you honestly read that and feel we should turn away these victims of Islamic State?
Let us not accept this fear only to be proven wrong by history yet again. Instead, let us say no to leaders who want to fan baseless fear. Let us light the way to a safer world by doing the right and caring thing.
