Refugee Resettlement: Time to Panic!
Or Not.
Predictably, Donald Trump wasted no time post-Orlando attack to declare “I told you so” in the cheapest and crassest way possible, tweeting how he was “right” about Islamic Terrorism. He also soon reiterated (with some new modifications) his intent to suspend foreign Muslim entry into the US. He called the shooter an “Afghan” (nope) and pointed out the only reason the shooter’s family was here was that the US allowed them to immigrate from Afghanistan. While this statement is true, Trump’s tone and implication was that the US should have somehow screened the family out. This is “hindsight is 20/20” at its best: The family immigrated to New York in the 1980’s, possibly in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion. You know, when the US was on Afghanistan’s side.
Due to the ongoing war in Syria and Trump’s rhetoric, the topic of foreign Muslim resettlement in the US is a hot topic again. The Obama Administration has announced their intent to resettle approximately 10,000 Syrian refugees, with 2,800 having arrived thus far. If those seem like large numbers they’re really not. The United Nations estimates five million Syrians have fled their war-torn country. Refugees, particularly ones from war zones, are subjected to the most intense, comprehensive security and health screening methods available to the US government. Most Syrian refugees to the US, almost 70 percent, are women and children under the age of 12.
As the heads of the FBI, National Counterterrorism Center, and DHS correctly noted in an October 2015 Senate hearing there are risks in importing anyone from a “conflict zone” into the US, and by definition, a foreign war zone with no direct US participation or intelligence sharing agreements is not the best place to collect a paper trail on the average Syrian civilian. So there is no doubt any vetting system is imperfect. But that, by the way, applies to every vetting system the US Intelligence and Law Enforcement community has.
Nevertheless, since 9/11 the US has admitted about 780,000 refugees. That figure includes 120,000 since 2007 from Iraq, a country the US invaded. Since 9/11 the number of refugees that have been arrested in the US on terrorism-related charges is…three. Yes, that’s right…three, with a total of zero attacks. According to the FBI, in 2011 alone (most recent stats I could find) the rate of violent crime across the US per 100,000 people was 386.3.
The Tsarnaev family, that of the two brothers that executed the Boston Marathon attacks of 2013, has been falsely held up as an example of the failure of US refugee screening. But they weren’t refugees. The Tsarnaevs arrived on a tourist visa and applied for asylum after the fact. This distinction is not mere semantics; the amount of vetting and bureaucratic navigation required for refugee applicants goes far beyond what’s required for a tourist visa.
Finally, and though I know personal anecdotes don’t necessarily “prove” anything, I’m going to tell one anyway: My grandmother on my father’s side was Lebanese. Her mother (my great grandmother), Jamelia Tanus, immigrated to the US in the early 20th century, joining a brother who was already here. The circumstances of their migration are fuzzy, but they would have left right around the outbreak of World War I which soon resulted in a Turkish blockade of the country leading to widespread famine. The Maronite Christian population which my great grandparents were a part of suffered massive losses.
In any case they settled in Mississippi, first the Gulf Coast and then the upstate Delta. And they made it. Jamelia married another Lebanese immigrant (George Shapley) who started a seafood business and then opened a general store. Together they had four children (including my grandmother), with the other three siblings, boys, all serving in the US Army during World War II. After the war the boys started successful businesses of their own in Mississippi.
My great grandparents were Arabic. Upon arrival they spoke no English, only Lebanese which is a category of Arabic. They were dark skinned, had funny names, and settled in the South. And they prospered. They established businesses that strengthened and served the communities they lived in and three of their four children honorably served the US in war.
Granted, they were not Muslims. Yet considering the current political climate (or maybe depending on who wins the Presidency) I often wonder what chance two dark-skinned foreigners from the Middle East who speak no English and are simply trying to flee a war they want no part of really have these days.
I do know that I am sitting here because 100 years ago, long before the current massive national security apparatus existed, two such people were given that chance.
