“You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you …
“… the stranger that dwells with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; “Love you therefore the stranger: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus and /Deuteronomy)
FOUNDING FATHERS’ PERSPECTIVE
(There is) “a right which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them.” (Thomas Jefferson)
“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong….” (George Washington)
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” (John Adams)
FACTS
immigrant (def.): A person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.
refugee (def.): a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.
Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com
Approximately 1 out of every 100 people in the world is a refugee who has been forcibly displaced from their home. It is the highest number since the United Nations began collecting data in 1951. In Syria, the number is approximately 60%.
Pew Research Center, 10/5/16. Connor, P. & Krogstad, J. “Key facts about the world’s refugees”
The power of the federal government to accept refugees into the US from foreign countries is granted in Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 3 and 4 of the Constitution.
Wikipedia, “Article One of the U.S. Constitution”
America has a long history of opposing refugee resettlement. For example:
- In the 1840’s, a primary plank of the Know Nothing or American political party was putting an end to refugee resettlement.
- In 1939, a Gallup Poll showed 67 percent of Americans opposed taking in 10,000 refugee children from Germany.
- In 2016, a poll showed 54% of all registered voters did not want any refugees from Syria. Republicans were about 3 times less likely to want to take in refugees than were Democrats.
Pew Research Center, 1/30/17. “Key facts about refugees to the US”
Slate Magazine, 11/17/15. Bouie, Jamelle. “When people flee to America’s shores”
“Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore – Send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me ….” (“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, mounted on the Statue of Liberty in 1903).
In 1939, the St. Louis, a ship carrying 935 mostly German Jews seeking US asylum from the Nazis, left Hamburg, Germany. The US would not accept them, citing quota and administrative issues. The ship returned the passengers to various European countries where 254 of them were killed in the Holocaust.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia, “The voyage of the St. Louis”
The first refugee legislation, The Displaced Persons Act, was passed in 1948. It allowed for 250,000 Europeans to resettle in the US after WW II, and another 400,000 Europeans to come to the US who were fleeing Communist governments.
The Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 originally provided a structure for admitting refugees primarily from Southeast Asia and the Soviet Union. This Resettlement Act is the current legal guideline for US policy.
Office of Refugee Resettlement, “History”
In the 37 years since the Refugee Resettlement Act was passed, 3 million refugees have been resettled in the US.
Refugees to the US peaked in the early 90’s, averaging about 112,000 per year. Following the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, the number dropped to 27,000 per year; the number has steadily trended upward since then.
Pew Research Center, 1/30/17. “Key facts about refugees to the US”
California, Texas, and New York accept approximately 25% of all US refugees, over 20,000 per year. Other states in the US accept as few as 10 or less per year.
Law 360, 12/8/16. Knaub, Kelly. “California, Texas, New York received most refugees in 2016: report
In 2016, President Obama accepted 85,000 total refugees into the US. Forty-six percent (39,000) were Muslim refugees, the most Muslims ever admitted by any president. Additionally, for the first time in 10 years, Muslim refugees outnumbered the total number of Christian refugees admitted that same year.
Pew Research Center, 1/30/17. “Key facts about refugees to the US”
In 2015, European Union countries accepted a total of 1.3 million refugees which was 15 TIMES more than the US. Of the EU countries receiving refugees, up to 94% of these EU countries’ citizens strongly oppose their governments’ refugee policies.
Pew Research Center, 10/5/16. Connor, P & Krogstad,J. “Key facts about the world’s refugees”
The average Middle East refugee family resettled in the US costs taxpayers a total of $257,481 for the first five years, including Supplemental Social Security for up to 7 years, The amount spent to resettle ONE Middle East refugee in the US for 5 years, could help 12 refugees in their own country for the same period of time.
Center for Immigration Studies, November 2015. Zeigler, K. & Camarota, S. “The high cost of resettling middle eastern refugees”
Social Security Administration, “Supplemental Security Income for non-citizens”
In 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio, local refugee resettlement agencies spent approximately $4.8 million helping refugees get established in the area. When the city hired an economics firm to review the resettlement costs, they found the total negative economic impact of those refugees was $48 million, 10 times the originally projected cost.
Chimura Economics and Analytics, “Economic impact of refugees in the Cleveland Area, 2012”
Over one-fourth of all refugees are diagnosed with serious medical conditions with forms of tuberculosis (TB) accounting for 94% of the cases.
- The number of refugees with TB has increased every year since 2012, the first year the Center for Disease Control (CDC) began collecting statistics for refugees.
- In 2015, for the first time in 25 years, twenty-seven states reported an increase in the number of TB cases.
- In January 2017, it was discovered that TB cases among refugees were three times greater than was previously thought because 35 states had refused to release their statistics to the media.
The US is seeing an increase in six diseases that were almost eradicated: TB, measles, whooping cough, mumps, scarlet fever, and bubonic plague. The increase in these diseases has paralleled the increase in refugees from countries where these diseases are prevalent.
Center for Disease Control. “Reported Tuberculosis in the United States 2015”
Breitbart, 6/19/16. Leahy, Michael Patrick. “Six diseases return to US as migration advocates celebrate world refugee day”;
Breitbart, 1/2/17, Leahy, Michael Patrick “1565 refugees diagnosed with active TB since 2012: 3 times more than previously reported.”
The United States gives more TOTAL money for refugee resettlement than any other country, but in terms of the percentage of Gross National Income, US giving ranks behind 14 other countries.
Politifact, 11/17/15. Greenberg,Jon “Obama: US is largest donor for displaced persons,refugee relief”
SUMMARY
For the sake of truth in advertising, the poem on the Statue of Liberty should be amended to read, “(Occasionally) Give me (a reasonable amount of) your tired, your poor….” US history shows that helping refugees – without destroying our own national fabric – requires much more than a simplistic “do-gooder” approach. To successfully assimilate, refugees need abundant commitments of time and financial support from host countries which is not always pleasant to do. Refugees have health problems we don’t want. Their cultures, religious practices, and political beliefs are different from ours, and have not always been welcome in the US for as long as our nation has existed.
Simply throwing federal money at the refugee problem in the US has not solved it. Massive social and criminal problems in EU countries, related to the increase in Islamic refugees, foreshadow similar situations in the US if a better approach to processing refugee applicants is not developed and implemented.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
Closing our national doors to all refugees cannot be the answer — not to a Judeo-Christian nation made up largely of immigrants, with Christianity as its backbone and a beacon of Liberty to the world. But the U.S. also has a long and proud history of security, military might and brilliance when the need arises. Here then, is an opportunity to combine the very best of American values, but it can only happen through true policy shifts. We cannot continue to accept tens of thousands of poorly-vetted Syrian or other refugees while we have protective, sanctuary cities they may hide in after committing serious crimes or acts of terrorism. We cannot continue to issue visas, without the will or ability to find those visa holders upon visa expiration. We should not release refugees amidst any community in stealth or secrecy, and any refugees with a history of terrorist activity must be denied entry. How to deal with refugee health problems is another gravely serious issue. If and when we can resolve those policy issues, then we can, and should, take on as many of those “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” as we can reasonably afford to process in an orderly fashion.
Brief #33A – May 15, 2017
