The issue isn’t whether immigrants are good for the US. Or course they are. The issue is whether Democrats will use all appropriate indices of violence as valid screening criteria, and whether Republicans will tighten gun background checks.
Should the US admit 10,000 Syrian refugees? All other things being equal, the answer is obvious: of course. This country is built on immigrants — people who look different but turn out not only to fit in but to make dramatic contributions to our country. Think Edward Teller. Think Albert Einstein. Think Elie Wiesel. If anything, in a world flooded with millions of Syrian refugees, the US should be embarrassed to be debating the admission of such a small number of potential Syrian refugees.
Unfortunately, all other things are not equal. Following the Paris terrorist attacks, people justifiably question the degree of security in free societies.
We are told that screening procedures for potential Syrian refugees are airtight, and besides, most of these people are widows and orphans. It is precisely the dissonance between the first and the second clauses in that claim that raise serious concerns. In fact, the second clause bespeaks a profound ignorance of terrorism today. Namely: Terrorists include females. Terrorists includes mothers. Suicide bombers include both. The idea that we can rest easy with the American screening system because, after all, most of the screenees would never be terrorists — they’re females! — is precisely what makes people distrust American procedures. It’s not the immigrants whom people fear — it’s the government’s inadequate screening procedures, based as they are on the assumption that most of the people could never be terrorists anyway.
Of course, most never would.
But “most” is not sufficient.
“Every” potential immigrant, Americans have a right to assume, is not potentially a terrorist. With a president and countless politicians who assure us that because a potential immigrant is a female, or a mother, she is automatically never going to be a terrorist, the government — rightly — is not trusted to do the job.
We are told that it is pure illogic to fear Syrian immigrants in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, given that no Syrian immigrant participated in those attacks. The illogic here is the elephant in the room. The fear from Paris is not from immigrants of a given nationality; it is fear of radical Islamic terrorists, regardless of nationality, and virtually all of the potential Syrian immigrants are Muslims.
Does being a Muslim automatically make one a terrorist? No. Are most Muslims terrorists? No. Would most of the potential Syrian immigrants be terrorists based on their religion? No. But again, the point here isn’t “most.” It’s “every.” What people justifiably have a right to ask of their government as it screens potential Syrian immigrants is whether their religious affiliation includes like-minded, violent, radical Muslims. If the government is not even asking the question, then the government — rightly — is not trusted to do the job.
We are told that Colorado in particular should follow in the courageous footsteps of the late Gov. Ralph Carr, who admitted Japanese during WW II, not falling to the hysteria of the time. The comparison allows emotion to cloud fact. Carr wascourageous, and is a worthy role model. But the people he admitted to Colorado were all American citizens, not immigrants. There is no comparison between Carr’s act and the proposal to admit Syrian refugees.
We are told that the US should not repeat the mistakes of the Holocaust, when this country shamefully turned away desperate Jews fleeing Hitler. This comparison, too, allows emotion to cloud fact — in fact, it clouds three facts.
First of all, Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler did not commit terrorist acts in the name of Judaism in the years prior to the time these refugees sought entrance to the US. The context of Jewish refugees of Hitler is totally different from that of the Muslim refugees of Assad.
Second, virtually all Jews trying to flee Hitler to the US had nowhere else to go. It was the US or death. Millions of Syrian refugees have other places to go, such as temporary shelters in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, as well as potential citizenship in a variety of European countries. In Syria, yes, many Syrians are at risk for their lives; and, yes, some Syrian refugees in flight to Europe do endanger their lives. The latter is a choice among other alternatives.
Third, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler had the right to enter the US under America’s own immigration quotas. These quotas were deliberately not filled by President Roosevelt and his minions. Syrian refugees are in a different position. They are asking for the right to enter the US — a right that, all things being equal, this country should be only too happy to grant.
For the necessary equalities to come into existence, both the Democratic and Republican parties need to make fundamental policy changes.
Faced with the possibility of terrorists slipping into the pool of potential Syrian refugees — ready to wield their guns and other weapons as the terrorists in Paris did — the Republicans need to back universal background checks for the purchase of a weapon. This does not derogate from anyone’s Second Amendment rights; it’s no different in principle from the requirement to pass a driver’s test to secure the right to another potentially lethal weapon: a car. One may not logically complain about potentially violent Syrian Muslim immigrants and also forsake maximum caution in preventing them (and other miscreants) from acquiring weapons.
The Democrats running the current administration need to tighten the immigrant screening process by regarding gender and religion as appropriate criteria for strict scrutiny in weeding out every potential terrorist — not, to be perfectly clear, as criteria to discriminate against any potential immigrant; not to automatically exclude any potential immigrant on the basis of gender or religion; but to use these criteria, along with others, to establish fully the non-violent background and beliefs of these potential Syrian immigrants.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
