Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

-Emma Lazarus-

That poem can be found at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty. It refers to the thousands of immigrants coming to the United States through Ellis Island. You see, at that time in America, many people were seeking a new land to escape to, a new land to run to, and most importantly a new land to make a successful life in. It was a time in America that wasn't necessarily the easiest for everyone, but America ended up as their destination

This week the discussion of foreign refugees re-emerged as 10,000 more Syrian refugees are expected to come in by years end and 100,000 by 2017. This has created a lot of debate and discussion here in America about whether or not we should allow them into the country due to security risks. In this discussion has emerged a lot of hatred for, not only political opposites but the refugees themselves. The problem and fear are that ISIS will use the refugees to infiltrate the United States to perform a terror attack. This argument is understood, but often isn't backed with too much information, so I decided to dig a little and see what we can learn from not ignoring this argument, but taking it into consideration.

According to the data from the Migration Policy Institute, since September 11, 2001, the United States has taken in 784,000 refugees, and of those 3 have been arrested for terrorism. Considering that compared to 1069 mass shooting since Sandy Hook (as of July) caused by homegrown terrorism (which doesn't mean Islamic, many of these had nothing to do with religion). Those numbers well exceed that of the refugees, making our own people the more dangerous group. That being said, we make up a much larger group than the refugees, so naturally, we would have more dangerous people. But you cannot ignore that this clearly shows that refugees are not known for terrorism, and therefore should not be linked with it.

Another argument used to combat refugees, is that fact that ISIS used refugees seeking asylum in France to get in and coordinate the Paris attacks. This is true. We cannot deny that the tragedy that happened in Paris is a sad one that caused hatred towards refugees seeking asylum and many more Americans wanting to refuse them. The problem with that, though, is that getting admittance to the US as a refugee is quite different than it is in Europe. According to The Atlantic, "A refugee applying for resettlement in the U.S., by contrast, must endure a screening process that takes as long as two years before stepping foot on American soil," and "..refugee applicants are subject to the highest level of security checks of any type of traveler to the U.S." You see, refugees are not just being let into America, a luxury the countries in Europe are not allowed, because they are the closest to the actual conflict and needed in order for Syrian's to escape quickly. We cannot blame these refugees for terrorism and our government for letting them in without consideration because neither of those things is true. Our Government doesn't take the situation lightly and in the end, makes it incredibly difficult for refugees to find safety in the land of the free. After 9/11 we took major security issues into consideration, it's the reason why it takes forever to get through any airport; it may be annoying, but it keeps us safe. Those same considerations were not just forgotten about with refugees, there is a reason it takes up to two years to get here.

Now with all that considered, the real problem cannot be the numbers, but that fear of the unknown. I have seen a considerable amount of racism and xenophobia towards refugees, as my city is a resettlement site. Our newspaper here takes the time to ask many questions towards their Facebook followers about how they feel about refugees. The appalling nature of the comments cannot be described. (See my article "What happened to Humanity"). Recently, though, the discussion re-emerged and made me realize something, many people do not know the difference between refugees and Immigrants. A police shooting happened in my city (not deadly) and the person involved, who injured the officer, had a name that was not a typical American name. The Facebook page for the news was giving updates, to which many people commented "Get rid of illegals," "No more immigrants," and "We need to tell our Mayor to get rid of Refugees." Now it's probably time to tell you, this person not only is American but was from the next closest town. Because his name seemed to be different, the people assumed he was not from here. That's not all, it seems that many people are combining the words 'Refugee,' 'Immigrant,' and 'Illegal' as the same thing. This is wildly untrue. A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. An immigrant is a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. The word 'illegal' is referring to immigrants that have come to the country illegally. We must not confuse these terms and start to educate ourselves in order to have a better conversation to achieve effective change.

In the end we are left with the question of why do so many people spread this kind of hatred and misunderstanding? The answer is simple, they do not know any better. According to Pew Research Center, "The more likely a person is to know a Muslim, the more likely she is to express positive feelings toward Muslims as a group." We cannot return the hate to these people, but rather show them the facts and allow for them to find out for themselves. Will America ever be the destination it once was? Not as long as we keep our lamps down and our golden gate close. Lady Liberty doesn't stand for hatred, and neither should America.