By Benjamin Field
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Governor Tom Wolf’s announcement made me proud to be a Pennsylvanian. I’m all for vetting refugees to ensure national security, but a blanket policy that rejects innocent, well-intentioned refugees just because they’re Syrian is irrational and counterproductive.
Terrorists have two goals (1) kill individuals who do not share their beliefs and (2) generate sufficient fear and panic to cause irrational policy decisions (e.g. Second Iraq War). Tragically, the terrorists who struck France accomplished their first goal when they killed approximately 129 individuals. Allowing panic to dictate our immigration policy – and cause us to send thousands of vulnerable refugees back to a war-torn terrorist recruiting ground – would make the terrorist attack a total success.
As Americans, we are, from time-to-time, called upon to open our borders to those in need. When we have provided sanctuary – as with refugees from Cuba, South Vietnam, and Bosnia – the refugees who came to our shores enriched our culture, economy, and national pride. However, when we allowed xenophobia, bigotry, or fear to close our doors to those in need – as with thousands of Jews during the Holocaust (e.g. St. Louis ship) – those rash decisions returned to haunt us as an enduring scourge upon our nation’s legacy. The thousands of Syrian refugees who wish to flee the Syrian Civil War are no different than the Jews who fled Hitler, the Cubans who fled Castro, or the Bosnians who fled Milosevic.
In short, allowing the actions of a few terrorists to scare us into sending ALL Syrian refugees back to a war-torn country would (1) further the goals of the terrorists who attacked France and (2) permanently blotch America’s legacy.
(The contributor is a student at The George Washington University Law School)
EDITOR: And we are proud of the LNP editorial staff for their conclusion: “The terrorist attacks of last week were beyond horrific. We want to see Islamic State crushed. But we must hold on to our own humanity in the face of Islamic State’s inhumanity. When we do, we win.”
