Faces of Syrian Refugees living in Sankt Andresberg, Germany

Are these the Syrian refugees that might pose the risks to national security?

The young refugees that fled with their mothers from the Middle East, particularly from Syria face a U.S. country-wide debate in the media that project them as dangerous. The Western values could win them over to embrace their new way of life if we could show them that it is a better altenative. Those who oppose taking in these refugees argued that they might pose security ricks. These debates have been taken place that put the country’s moral responsibility to refugees with that of the risks to their national security.

Even most of the Republican Presidential candidates are calling with their party members in Congress to legislate to put a halt to accept them into the country. Over 30 States Governors asked the Federal government not to send any Syrian refugees to their respective States. However, the original wording of the Bill measures was quickly watered down to pass a bill that would be making it a tighter control to the screening process of refugees. This was after President Obama has hinted at not endorsing the original tough measure.

Sadly, the debates took the path of fear and the raising concerns for national security. The actual process to grant approval for refugees is done by the U.S. Immigration Department. There are a number of checks and balances with collaboration with the Department of State. The record by this process has been one of the best in the world. The U.S. Department of State fact source stated that of the 785,000 refugees admitted into the U.S. since the 9/11 attack in 2001, only about a dozen were arrested or removed who were related to terror activity. The overwhelm majority of those who seek refuge have been genuine refugees mostly innocent children and women.

Contrary to France, the country that was recently attacked, their government leaders rose up to their commitment to accept 30,000 from Syria alone, the very country that the attackers were suspected to be from. The war-torn Middle East region has caused the flight of over 4 million from Syria alone.

So far, the U.S. has only committed to accept 10,000 before the attacks happened. The Bill that Congress passed was only at the House of Representatives. The next process needs the passing from the Senate in which the Democratic Party has the majority. The majority leader, Senator Reid in a press conference said that he would see that this Bill would not pass at the Senate. If he succeeded to block the passage of this Bill at the Senate, then there is no need for the President to veto it as he had indicated when asked by the press when he was in the Philippines. He is there for the APEC trade summit. Even if it passed upon his return from the summit, the Bill might not be presented by Congress till after the Thanksgiving Holidays for the President to weight on whether to sign the Bill into law.

Even though the Bill has passed through the House of Representatives through the legislative process at the Capitol Hill, the debates continue in the media.