What America ought to do about Syrian refugees is a huge topic right now. Should we close the borders or not? What is the biblical approach? What’s the humanitarian approach? What do we do?

Here are seven reasons why they should be let in. Due to time and the extensiveness of each of these points, I can only cover them broadly. Each of these points could be articles themselves:

1) Since when is the land of the free and home of the brave, the land of the closed borders and home of the fearful?

I feel that this speaks for itself. We boast a national anthem that says, “O'er the land of the free, and home of the brave.” How can we do that if we are too terrified by the “Muslim threat” at our doorstep? How can we proudly claim that we are the land of the free if we deny those seeking freedom refuge from oppression?

2) If you close the borders, you are sentencing them to their deaths; they have nowhere else to go.

We saw this back in the 1930s. A majority opinion was to keep Jewish refugees out of the country, despite the events that were happening across the Atlantic in Germany. How many individuals could have been saved if we had only opened borders to let them in? If we deny individuals who seek freedom and safety from getting it, you are leaving them to die. It’s pretty simple, actually.

3) Our ancestors came to this country to escape persecution. Sounds familiar, right?

No one is “native” to this country except the Native Americans. Our ancestors fled Europe because they faced massive religious persecution in all the countries they were coming from--England, Germany, and so on. This seems oddly similar to the situation now. Individuals are being persecuted and dying, and yet they can’t do what we were able to do. I beg you, reconsider.

4) What does the statue of liberty (given to us by France) symbolize? LIBERTY!

The Statue was given to us as a gift from the people of France. It was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and was built by Gustave Eiffel. At the bottom of the statue, on the base, is a quote by Emma Lazarus, saying, “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.” The statue was place on Ellis Island as a beacon of hope for those who were immigrating from the European countries trying to escape persecution. I cannot stress how awfully contradicting we sound if we stand by this symbol, but deny refugees access to a better life. How can we claim such a symbol when we deny people that freedom?

5) We claim ourselves to be a cultural melting pot and yet we fear people because of a label we give them.

One of the things that our country prides itself on is the massive amount of culture we have. We are a cultural melting pot. And yet, we seem to be afraid of this single group of individuals. We are afraid that all Muslims are bad and evil, and that every single one of them has ties to ISIS. We racially profile these individuals and distrust them at every step without actually understanding them as people. Which leads to my next point.

6) These are PEOPLE, not just “Muslims” or “Syrian refugees.” They have families, stories, goals, and drives. How can we be against them making their “American Dream” come true?

Instead of arguing for this point, let me just give you examples. These are refugee’s stories told by refugees themselves:

Men were planning on killing this man. “I had to leave or they would kill me. I couldn’t afford to bring my family with me. I didn’t even say goodbye. I snuck away in the middle of the night because I couldn’t stand to see my children cry.”

“My family fled Afghanistan because the Taliban wanted to kill my father. I arrived in Greece fifteen years ago. We came across a river from Turkey. We tried to walk at night but we knew that we’d been caught because we kept seeing red lasers pointed at us. We saw the glow of night vision goggles through the trees. But nobody approached us, so we thought that maybe we had been mistaken, and we kept walking. Eventually we came upon a car along the road that had driven into a ditch. The lights were on and the doors were open. We thought somebody might be hurt inside, so everyone ran toward the car. But it was a trap. The police came swarming out of the trees. I’d been told many times that they’d beat us when they found us. But it was even worse than I imagined. They treated us like animals. They wore masks and gloves because they were afraid to even touch us. It was like we weren’t human.”

 

“My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey. We worked 15 hours a day in Turkey until we had enough money to leave. The smuggler put 152 of us on a boat. Once we saw the boat, many of us wanted to go back, but he told us that anyone who turned back would not get a refund. We had no choice. Both the lower compartment and the deck were filled with people. Waves began to come into the boat so the captain told everyone to throw their baggage into the sea. In the ocean we hit a rock, but the captain told us not to worry. Water began to come into the boat, but again he told us not to worry. We were in the lower compartment and it began to fill with water. It was too tight to move. Everyone began to scream. We were the last ones to get out alive. My husband pulled me out of the window. In the ocean, he took off his life jacket and gave it to a woman. We swam for as long as possible. After several hours he told me he that he was too tired to swim and that he was going to float on his back and rest. It was so dark we could not see. The waves were high. I could hear him calling me but he got further and further away. Eventually a boat found me. They never found my husband.” 

Thank you, Humans of New York, for these stories. These are real people. Not terrorists, not ISIS, people. People who need places to go to avoid being persecuted, killed, or brutally tortured. If you do not know what HONY is, please check out their Facebook page. It's brilliant.

7) Tighten security elsewhere. Why not let them in but continue to be wary? I don’t think anyone can blame people for being cautious.

One of the biggest arguments I have heard against letting refugees in is the fact that we can’t control who comes in disguised as refugees but are really members of ISIS. We should close the borders because otherwise, we can’t protect ourselves from ISIS. This is a load of hooey. ISIS claims they have members already here. We are not safe as it is. Even if we shut the borders down, ISIS is already here. Closing the borders would do absolutely nothing to help the situation, only cause more people to unnecessarily die. ISIS will always be able to have someone in the country because they’ve been here. “Protecting ourselves” is not a good excuse.