Getting Your Undies in Knots over Refugees

One of the downsides of having a Face Book account is that you have to periodically tolerate what I characterize as:  Faux Face Book Rage.  

If you can visualize an adult throwing a tantrum while hiding behind the relative safety of their smartphone you have the picture.

The last 56 hours or so has been a cornucopia of manufactured rage over the threat of boatloads of Syrian refugees flooding our beaches and borders and bringing terrorists and mayhem to our peaceful nation.  In the interests of national security all Syrian refugees must be banned.  Never mind the peaceful nation murder rate in Cleveland  - but I digress.

Here’s the skinny on refugees and asylum-seekers.

Using just the current screening process it can take up to two or more years for U.S. officials to process applications for resettlement, most of which are referred to the U.S. and other countries that have agreed to accept refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Each applicant undergoes medical exams, several security checks and an in-person interview with immigration officers at the Department of Homeland Security, cultural orientation classes and a final security clearance.  It can take up to two or more years to accomplish this.

Candidates must prove they meet the legal definition of a refugee, which includes having a well-founded fear of persecution based on one of five protected grounds — race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

The average processing time for Syrian refugees is typically longer.  A good example is a couple of families that arrived in LA a month ago applied for resettlement from Egypt - where they fled after Syria erupted into civil war in 2011.

With the exception of several incidents with Cuba the U.S. doesn’t typically have to deal with boatloads of refugees washing-up on our shores. The intensive vetting of those seeking asylum under U.S. law makes it exceedingly difficult to quickly process large numbers of people.  As a matter of fact, since the refugee program for Central American minors was established a year ago, the United States has yet to admit one child.

So puzzle me this.  Since a much easier way to arrive here is as a student, tourist or businessman (no years of waiting, no medical exams, no rigorous security check or interrogation) how is it that refusing refugees makes my world a safer place?

Add to that the fact that most terrorist acts are committed by self-radicalized individuals already living in the country.

If I had to hazard a guess this has less to do with security and much more to do with next year’s election.

As evidence of this I submit the closing of Wisconsin's borders to Syrian refugees by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Inasmuch as Wisconsin only accepted a grand total of... wait for this..... TWO...refugees from Syria in 2014 I will sleep soundly tonight knowing that no further refugees will be admitted to the dairy state. 

Raising a cold glass of moo to our closed border. Can't wait for the first border control point when I travel to Illinois.

Move along now.

Nothing more to see….