Refugee issue stirs strong emotions, despite no influx expected

Members of the Pickens County Republican Party recently heard a chilling update on the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program at Liberty Auditorium.

One of the forum speakers, Tara Servatius from WORD Radio, warned the crowd of about 40 that the refugee program is part of a conspiracy orchestrated by insiders in Washington that’s designed to create a one-party political system and enlarge a populace dependent on big government.

Critics of the alarmist sentiment, however, say the meeting only serves to show how unfounded some of the fears are regarding a mass influx of immigrants that simply aren't expected to come to Pickens County. The differing opinions on extreme opposite ends of the spectrum reveal an emotional tug-of-war that exists in the Upstate.

Servatius charged up the Oct. 15 crowd, telling attendees that the influx of Muslims from the Middle East, most of them males of fighting age, is part of the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s stealth attack on American values.Others also are expressing dire warnings.

This week, a posting on the Pickens County News Facebook page warned: “Do you want these children of unvetted Syrians coming in to your child's public school and sitting beside your child?... cause if one of these kids brings a real bomb clock into the classroom and your child gets blown up...whose fault is it?”

It's not just government officials sharply disputing such claims, as closer to home, others are asking friends and neighbors not to buy into biased hysteria.

The Rev. Keith Ray, pastor of Clemson United Methodist Church and a former member of the Greenville County School Board, said he’s concerned about “an unfounded panic” over refugees coming here.

“We don't need meetings to create panic and fear based on our own prejudices,” he said. “Instead, understanding more about the plight of those who are having to be relocated would be most helpful.

“Quite simply, we are faced with a situation of human need and have an opportunity to prepare to respond.”

The Pickens County meeting, called by Phillip Bowers, chairman of the county GOP and a member of the county school board, came after word that a Christian nonprofit called World Relief has been approved to facilitate the resettlement of refugees in Spartanburg.

The concerns he cites are primarily economic.

“The Obama administration wants to settle thousands of Syrian and other refugees across America by running roughshod over local and state governments, forcing local taxpayers to foot the bill for services,” he said.

Diane Hardy, who heads a "pocket of resistance" with a Facebook page called Secure South Carolina, tells the group that the refugees will suck up benefits paid for by South Carolina taxpayers and strain already overtaxed social services, law enforcement, schools and health care systems.

The speakers at the meeting placed the blame on Gov. Nikki Haley, who they said signed off on the federal government’s request to allow refugees here.

That’s not exactly how it happened, according to the Governor’s Office.

Once the State Department approves a local agency to facilitate refugee resettlement, the governor can’t stop refugees from coming, a spokesman said. The governor’s signature only gives the state a voice in how the money is used that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

In a letter to state Rep. J. Derham Cole, chairman of the Spartanburg County Legislative Delegation, Haley wrote that she supports the humanitarian mission of the Refugee Resettlement Program, but that she shares concerns about the quality of the screening process.

“Just as we cannot allow fear to erode America’s place in the world as accepting of immigrants who chose to come legally and contribute as citizens, nor can we allow ineffective federal bureaucracies to put our citizens at risk,” she wrote.

U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a Republican from Spartanburg who chairs the committee investigating the Benghazi incident of 2012, blames the Obama administration for creating the refugee crisis and failing to provide adequate safeguards.

“The administration has not provided certainty to Congress that they have a plan to prevent ISIS from infiltrating our country through the refugee program,” he said in a statement released by his office. “Instead, the president’s idea of consultation is to decide to accept thousands of new refugees with or without congressional support.

“This displacement has occurred because of this administration's feckless foreign policy," Gowdy said. "Many of those displaced want a safe, secure homeland in or near the Middle East and that should be the priority.”

State Rep. Mike Burns of Taylors, who attended a meeting on the refugee issue in Spartanburg, said he also has questions about how well refugees are screened before being allowed into the United States.

“The problem I have with it is we really don’t know who these folks are,” he said. “We don’t know what their affiliations are with any group: from a really good solid person who needs help, to a possible terrorist.

“Until we have that, I don’t think it’s a good idea that we let our guard down.”

The State Department, which oversees the program, paints a different picture.

Most refugees are referred by the United Nations, which focuses on the people most vulnerable to oppression, such as female-headed households, victims of torture or violence and religious minorities, a State Department official said in a press briefing.

All refugees who enter the United States are screened by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, the official said.

Before they’re allowed in, they also undergo health screenings for diseases that could affect public health such as tuberculosis.

The Obama administration has set a target of relocating 10,000 Syrians in the United States by the end of the 2016 fiscal year, the State Department says. Most of those already have begun processing.

Looking at previous records, 1,786 refugees have been relocated in South Carolina since Jan. 1, 2002, according to the federal Refugee Processing Center database.

The largest number -- 679 -- have come from Burma, with 599 of those going to Columbia and 22 to Greenville.

Another 22 refugees have come from Afghanistan during that time, all of them to the Midlands; while 41 came from Iran, three of them to Greenville; and 231 from Iraq, 24 to Greenville, according to the database.

No city in Pickens County is listed as a destination for any refugees.

Jason Lee, the director of World Relief, which operates the refugee program in Spartanburg, couldn’t be reached for comment.

On the organization’s website, Lee writes, “We have not welcomed any Syrian refugees here nor does it appear we will in the foreseeable future as our new office launches.

“But we are welcoming refugees from across the globe here that are fleeing just as horrific tragedies or persecution that, while not as large scale in the numbers of people as the Syrian crisis, their needs are just as real and urgent that calls for a Christian response.”