Paris I: Refugees in America

Posts are back this week, with each one exploring different aspects of the attacks in Paris for which ISIS has claimed credit.  I'm starting today with a discussion of the American conversation about Syrian refugees that has developed in light of the fact that one of the attackers apparently snuck into the EU in the guise of a Syrian refugee.

The American political reaction has been highly polarized and predictably xenophobic on the American Right.  As of this writing, the governors of twenty states, my own included, have made public statements that they would block any attempts to resettle Syrian Refugees in their states - their reasoning is simple.  There is no way to guarantee that none of these people won't be secret ISIS operatives.  The supporters of these policies range from the extreme, overt racists to apologists who insist that some sort of screening process is needed.  After all, they opine, we used to process immigrants through Ellis Island.

What these people fail to realize (because they're apparently incapable of spending 2 seconds on a relevant google search) is that the screening process for refugees is multi-layered, extensive, and incredibly intense.  In order to be resettled in the United States as a refugee, you must

1. Apply to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee status.  They consider your application, determine if according their vetting you meet the qualifications, and if so, select a suitable third country (like the US) for resettlement.
2. Spend one to two years in a "Refugee Resettlement Center" (i.e. refugee camp) outside of the United States while
3. multiple agencies, including the FBI, the DOD, the State Department, and the DHS, collect biometric and intelligence data on you, assess you as a security risk, and determine if you're safe for resettlement in the US.

If an ISIS operative decided today that they wanted to sneak into the United States as a refugee, it would be years before even under the most optimistic circumstances that person might arrive in the United States, assuming they could fool about five different intelligence gathering agencies.  If that's a reasonable fear, then we're probably all screwed anyway, because there are about a thousand easier ways to get into the country.  Getting refugee status is the most stringent, difficult process for entry into the United States.  An ISIS operative with no digital or security footprint would get into the country in A FRACTION OF THE TIME by posing as a tourist or a student.

Controlling borders and immigration has always been an intentional or subconscious veil for the manifestation of horrible racism, and it's particularly hypocritical given the immigrant history of the United States.

I could get into the complex web of political and security decisions that implicate the United States and its allies in the horrible humanitarian crisis that these refugees are fleeing from, but does it really matter?  If you're on the right, if you believe that the United States is a Christian nation, how on Earth can you justify that level of selfishness and cruelty towards others experiencing abject suffering?  Refer to Matthew 25:31-46 for all further questions.  It's pretty direct.

If you'd prefer to send these people back where they came from, you're resigning them to be collateral damage in NATO airstrikes or to become victims in the next ISIS atrocity.  Either way, ISIS wins - it gets to kill them or use them as anti-Western propaganda as we continue to stack up innocent bodies.  To see these people as disposable is NO DIFFERENT FROM THE LOGIC OF THE TERRORISTS THAT YOU SO FEAR AND REVILE.  ISIS is defined by its viciousness and refusal to consider the humanity of those that are different and therefore unacceptable to them.  The sleaze-bag governors and those that support them are perfectly happy apparently to act like jihadists themselves, as long as its brown bodies that get caught in the crosshairs.