21 November 2015

The American Refugee Program MUST BE Safe & Open or Business

The emotional responses (including from me!!) to the threat of terrorism that may come from the refugee program, as experienced in France where 2 are now confirmed to have entered as refugees, will hopefully begin to wind down with actions ultimately being taken to allow a healthy refugee program to continue while ensuring it is operating in a safe way. Both are important.

In my view, where Trump is right about destroying ISIS and protecting ALL innocent people in Syria, his apparent agreement with a reporter that we have a database for all Muslims is over the top and unacceptable.

Trumps comments to the reporter about a database for Muslims

His action here is NOT a sign of Leadership. He needs to think before speaking and show that he can function as a measured leader. Likewise, Obama's continous emotional and factless sniping at the Republicans is not Leadership, nor is his constant claims there others have no ideas yet when is the last time he's been seen in Congress to discuss and debate any ideas? Anyway, if we allow someone to pass into the country as an immigrant, they should have already been vetted to guarantee safety as much as humanly possible.

Some basic observations and thoughts by me that hopefully come as level headed, unemotional, and fair:
1. I have friends across the world who are from Arab countries and raised Muslim and still practicing Muslims, not practicing but identify as Muslim (like many who identify as Christian but don't practice, or are now Christian.
   - Some speak openly about their concerns of some Muslims integrating into Western culture & society with examples of challenges in Western European countries, even though some of them now live in Western countries and are 'assimilated'
   -  I guarantee you that ALL of the Muslims I know are GREAT people and I don't see their religion when I look at them; I see a great person!
   - Bad or dangerous people can come in any color, from any country, and from any or no religion; we BETTER pay better attention in our broken immigration and refugee processes to ANY who could be dangerous and we know our government isn't always the best at building and operating processes
2. I'm am considered by Switzerland, which is arguably the safest country in the world, to be an immigrant since I live and work here; the process for me to be admitted WAS NOT easy (albeit I'm not a refugee, yet anyway)
   - It had to be proven there was no one in the country who was qualified to do my job, my company had to sponsor me, I had to send a police report and other documents, I had to visit the Swiss embassy in Atlanta for an interview, more documents, etc
   - I register in the canton (state/city) where I live and register again if I move; they KNOW where I live and I'm in trouble if they learn I'm living elsewhere and haven't formally reported it
   - In the USA, the refugees who went to Louisiana (Baton Rouge I believe) were gone from where settled within a year and the State has no clue where they are
   - In the USA, the census program for all 300M+ Americans is broken, we don't know how many people have over-stayed visa, and we don't know where they are; no matter a person's politics, this is ridiculous as is fair reason to question immigration processes (would never happen in Switzerland)
   - In the USA, with the broken census process (every 10+ years the government pushes survey and goes door to door in a joke of an effort to 'count') we don't even know how many people and who are in a state and city to modulate the electoral college votes by state, and to properly manage elections; what a joke!!!
- In the USA, felons are too often released and even cross the border into America time and time again and commit more crimes, including murder; these sanctuary cities are another reason to question the integrity of America's immigration processes (would never happen in Switzerland)
3. The above broken processes with no intent by some to fix are adding fuel to the fire over the refugee screening process, and I believe rightly so
4. It's not discussed in the media but there are 19 Million humans on the radar to be admitted into the USA through the refugee program; surely we can find 10K from that number who are not a threat for terrorism
5. We need to remove the politics as much as humanly possible and demand that the US government fix the broken immigration and related refugee programs in America, and it's hard for me to understand why anyone would not want to fix them
6. We need to take an honest look at what created and what continues to create a refugee crisis to begin with in the Middle East; estimated that 350K have been slaughtered over the past 7 years yet there has been less press about that than the refugee program (policies around BOTH are broken)
7. Based on what is known now, the war in Iraq that was supported by Republicans AND Democrats (including Clinton who voted for it) was probably a mistake but that was over a decade ago with multiple issues since then
   - Obama criticized Bush for sticks his uninvited hands into the situation in Iraq but Bush did something Obama has not; Bush asked Congress to declare war and it did, again with voted on both sides of the aisle
   - While Obama criticized Bush, he is using the SAME war declaration given to Bush so he can interfere in Syria - and he is certainly uninvited by Syrian government
   - Against recommendation of the military and Congress, Obama pulled the final 10K American troops from Iraq and left the weapons behind which enabled the entry of terrorists to grow the caliphate
   - Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and supported the effort to push Khadafi out of Libya; while criticizing Bush for no transition plan, he had no plan
   - Obama spent 50 Million to train rebels in Syria to fight the Assad regime; they could only find 100 who could be trusted to fight (THEIR WORDS) and only 5-6 are thought to still be on the battlefield; if they could only find 100 to fight, how can then find many more MEN to immigrate into the USA? --- Obama should be answering that question but he won't
   - For years, Republicans and Democrats have proposed that Obama create a no fly and safe zone in Syria top protect the innocent people IN Syria and he refuses to do it; why???
8. The Director of the FBI testified to Congress that the refugee screening process is not safe and cannot be used to certify safety of refugees from Syria where documentation is missing to even be able to screen applicants, and 2 terrorists in Paris are already been confirmed to be refugees from Paris who would have been screened by at least the UN; OF COURSE there is a risk from immigrants of Syria (and elsewhere) and Obama's emotional claims that people are afraid of women and CHILDREN is unacceptable - at least one of the terrorists blew herself up with a belt in the apartment in Paris.
   - After hearing threat assessments and testimony on the refugee screening process, Congress overwhelmingly voted (Republicans + 67 Democrats) to halt refugees entry from Syria and address the 'process'
   - Fix the process and certify it is SAFE!!

The Republican Presidential candidates (mostly Trump & Carson) need to more closely align themselves with the tact of the majority of Congress (includes 67 Democrats) who want to address the issues IN Syria along with the refugee screening program in a act based, unemotional way.

We LOVE immigrants and we need to LOVE the innocent in harms way even more. The cries now for refugees are 1000x louder than the cries for the slaughtered. The fighting which Obama fueled with rebels and weapons is THE reason why the refugee crisis is so great!!

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