Tom Suozzi

The refugees and immigrants are human beings

Posted

The anti-refugee and anti-immigrant rhetoric we’re hearing these days is simply un-American. Clearly we are all concerned about our safety, and everything needs to be done to protect ourselves, but we cannot, in the process, abandon that which makes America a beacon to the world.

Whenever I face a difficult issue, I look to the genius of our founding fathers, who crafted the bones of what America is today. The fundamental American caveat is “all men are created equal.” The concept is not that all men and women with passports are created equal. Nor is it that all men and women with green cards are created equal. Nor is it that all Americans are created equal. It is that all human beings are created equal, and are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity.

The refugees seeking asylum in our country are victims of war, terrorism and poverty. They are trying to escape from the violence and oppression in their homelands. Think of what it must take for them to pick up and leave behind everything they have ever known. They are infants and children. They are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren.

We have reason to be cautious. Many people are scared. There must be proper background checks and vetting. But most reports confirm that if you really want to protect against terrorists coming from outside our country, it’s students and tourists that we need to be most concerned about, not refugees, who must go through a two-year vetting process in order to receive asylum.

To abandon our American principals and reject the Syrian refugees en masse is to give a victory to the terrorists. They would love to have us abandon these victims in need. Similar to gangs in our own county, if we turn the refugees away, the only way for them to be protected will be for them to join the very terrorists they are currently seeking to escape.

(By the way, I don’t like to call them terrorists. It almost seems to elevate them, as though they stand for something or some cause. I would rather call them criminals and murderers. That’s what they are. They don’t stand for anything. If they do, please tell me.)

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