Fighting Terrorism By Welcoming Syrian Refugees

We are all horrified by the barbaric attacks in Paris designed to slaughter innocent people and inspire terror. We stand with the people of France, Lebanon, Egypt, and elsewhere where attacks have occurred, resolute in our commitment to push back against these evil, sinister forces and to redouble our efforts to assure we keep Americans safe.

We won’t achieve this by jumping to conclusions or impulse. The knee-jerk reactions of Congressional Republicans vowing to block our commitment to resettle Syrian refugees, or governors declaring they will close state borders, is not the answer. In the wake of these tragic terrorist attacks, the United States should be welcoming Syrian refugees, not turning our back on them.

Here’s why:

The terrorists who attacked Paris were not refugees. The Syrian passport found near the body of a suicide bomber did not belong to a refugee, as he did not receive a “refugee” designation from the United Nations or vetting from intelligence agencies. In fact, it’s quite possible that the passport was merely a ruse used by Daesh (a more accurate acronym for “ISIL” or “ISIS”) to further the West’s mistrust of Syrian refugees. Beyond the uncertainty surrounding a single Syrian passport, all other attackers have been identified as European Nationals, not refugees.

The United States has no historical reason to believe that the refugees we take in will become terrorists. Since 1980, not one of the millions of refugees brought into America has committed an act of terror in our country. In fact, non-refugees have carried out all terror attacks on the United States by abusing other means of migration. The 9/11 attackers did not sneak across the border, but exploited weaknesses in our visa system.

Turning away from our allies actually makes America less safe. Experts have shown that keeping refugees boarded up in camps near the violence they seek to escape actually increases terrorism and opportunities for terrorist recruitment. Resettling them away from the conflict areas decreases the risk of terrorism. More importantly, these foreign allies seeking refuge in the United States have played a key role in promoting our national security by serving as spies, intelligence analysts, and most recently as interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan, without whom we could not operate in the field. We need Syrian allies to defeat Daesh and undermine the ruthless dictator, Bashar Assad. Showing complete disregard for their safety will do little to bolster our intelligence networks in the region.

Shutting the door on Syrian refugees is exactly what Daesh wants us to do. Their propaganda makes clear they see Syrian refugees as traitors, fleeing the “caliphate” that Daesh seeks to create. Blocking the door to a refugee’s safe passage ensures Daesh has the victims it hopes to terrorize. Worse still, Daesh wants to provoke America into showing its worst self, using flimsy and fear-based logic to conflate all Muslims with the disgusting terrorists and acts they carried out last Friday. They hope the United States and our allies in Europe turn on the helpless refugees, leaving them with only one door open — the one that leads to Daesh.

Turning our back on Syrian refugees is un-American, un-patriotic and morally weak. Turning away from an entire population due to broad-brush characterizations of those who practice a certain faith goes against our core values as a nation. While we mourn the attacks in Paris, we must remember that those tragic events were an extension of the violence that their innocent brothers and sisters in Syria have been subjected to, day in and day out, for years now.

Moral courage can find the balance between fear and risk, between fear and humanity, between fear and leadership. Congress should not only commit itself to aiding the 10,000 Syrian refugees the President has committed to bring into the United States, it should also press for reforms and improvements in our refugee vetting process so that it can work more efficiently and effectively.

We should allow our excellent NGOs to partner with the United Nations’ refugee agency and the State Department to increase our capacity to more thoroughly vet the overwhelming pool of asylum seekers. That way, we can not only bolster our ability to thoroughly scrutinize these applicants, but we can better target our screening on the most needy, such as children, religious minorities, or single mothers.

Perspective is a powerful guide, which is given over time. When we look back to U.S. opinion regarding refugees in the lead up to WWII, how foolish we were. When asked, “What’s your attitude toward allowing German, Austrian, and other political refugees to come into the U.S.?,” fewer than 5 percent believed we should raise our immigration quotas to allow them entry, and nearly 68 percent said the United States should try and keep them out of our country. Ultimately, Americans found the courage and wisdom to do what was right.

America is better than our present politics. Seeking compassion for Syrian refugees can be done securely. The facts make that clear. A failure to do so would put us on the wrong side of history, again, and would only make us less safe, not more.