In case you missed it, the last few weeks have been overflowing with news relating to the Syrian refugee crisis. Thousands upon thousands of Syrian citizens are fleeing their homes in fear of ISIS and in search of a better and safer life for their children. The intense fear of the terrorists is fueling the desire of the masses of people to climb into unsafe boats and rafts to sail across a vast sea to Europe escaping persecution.
Europe only has so much room to shelter and assist the refugees, so America has been called on to step up and aid the effort. This call on the U.S. is causing a bulk of the controversy, especially in light of the recent Paris attacks. Many Americans and politicians are throwing their hands in the air in anger about President Obama's agreement to help the people in need.
The main cause of panic among Americans is the spreading of the belief that these Syrian refugees will come to the U.S. and commit terrorist acts. Donald Trump has frequently spoken about his belief that if Syrians came to America, they will be acting like a "Trojan horse" for ISIS to come to America. The fearmongering and misinformation about refugees is causing massive amounts of uproar among many U.S. citizens.
Recently, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has become a name on the list of governors who are saying that they will refuse to accept refugees in their state. Accepting refugees has become considered a liberal step for a state to take, so it can be surprising to some to see a notoriously liberal state deny refugees.
Being a non-native Boston citizen, I kept asking myself why Baker had made this decision. Would this have to do with Boston’s history of treating immigrants unfairly? Is Boston really the Mississippi of the North like I had heard? Then it dawned on me: the Boston Bombing.
Many Bostonians hear the rhetoric from politicians, such as Mike Huckabee, that some of the refugees could possibly be terrorists while still having fresh wounds from the tragedy just a few years back. Reasonably, people are fearful that history will repeat itself.
Luckily, many facts are keeping our city safer than expected. Firstly, up to this point, no refugee has ever committed a terrorist act on American soil. Also, despite what some may think, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were not refugees. Their father came to the U.S. as an asylee, which is different in many ways. Despite also escaping their home country in fear of persecution, asylees do not go through as much of a screening process as refugees. In fact, coming to the U.S. as a refugee is the most rigorous and extensive path to take. If a terrorist was to come to American soil as a refugee, it would be the worst possible avenue. This is probably the reason foreign attackers, such as the 9/11 hijackers, do not enter the U.S. through the path of refugees.
America has a privilege in refugee relationships that Europe does not have during this crisis. The U.S. government puts a hopeful refugee through multiple interviews, background checks, and tests through more than one agency. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and others get their share of the process.
In our recent global history, it is understandable that many American citizens are wary of anything that may put them at a risk of terrorism threat. But if accurate information was given to those fearful, America may have an opportunity to help these families who are escaping the threat we’ve been trying to defeat. By not helping these refugees, we are giving into ISIS’s wants. It's important to realize and remember that they're taking their children on boats across the ocean because it's safer than the deadly threat of ISIS.
