Refugees Should Not Scare You

I understand that people are afraid. ISIS is a scary group. Terrorism is scary in general. We all remember 9/11. We've all seen these guys behead people. I understand the reaction of fear, and I don't blame people for it.

None of that fear is a good reason to abandon our values though. We have always been there to support those distressed people in the world who need asylum. Just around two decades ago, we took thousands of Bosnians in during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. It is who we are. It is who we should be. To not be that nation is to let the terrorists win.

It's also quite safe for us to live up to our values:

Refugees apply for resettlement at American embassies or through the United Nations. If they pass that first hurdle, they are screened by outposts of the Department of State all over the world. They undergo investigations of their biography and identity; FBI biometric checks of their fingerprints and photographs; in-person interviews by Department of Homeland Security officers; medical screenings as well as investigations by the National Counter-terrorism Centre and by American and international intelligence agencies. The process may take as long as three years, sometimes longer. No other person entering America is subjected to such a level of scrutiny.

Refugee resettlement is the least likely route for potential terrorists, says Kathleen Newland at the Migration Policy Institute, a think-tank. Of the 745,000 refugees resettled since September 11th, only two Iraqis in Kentucky have been arrested on terrorist charges, for aiding al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Asylum-seekers have to navigate through a similar bureaucratic tangle. The decision to grant asylum is made by a Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer. If that officer finds that the applicant did not make his case convincingly, he receives a “Notice of Intent to Deny” (NOID) as long as his immigration status as, say, a tourist or student is still valid. He is then allowed to submit further evidence to bolster his case, though such decisions are rarely reversed. If the applicant’s immigration status is no longer valid, he is placed in deportation proceedings before an immigration court. The applicant then has a second chance to make his case in court while a government lawyer argues that he should be deported. In March this year, USCIS had 82,175 asylum cases pending. Last year each immigration judge handled, on average, 1,500 cases a year, double or even triple the caseload of other judges.

In other words, there's nothing to be afraid of. Let's be America, not let our fear make us give in to ISIS.