America has given sanctuary to desperate people for centuries, especially children. Without hesitation we extended a hand to Irish families from famine, Cambodians from genocide, Haitians from earthquakes, Sudanese from civil war and children from New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Since last year, hundreds of children kept coming alone from across the border with Mexico and they are still coming. And let’s not forget Operation Peter Pan, a mass exodus of unaccompanied Cuban minors to the United States between 1960 and 1962.
Now the problem is Syria. In what is now being called the largest exodus from a single conflict in a generation, more than 11 million Syrians are either displaced from their homes inside the country, or have fled across the border, mainly into neighboring Lebanon, Jordan , Iraq and Turkey. Historically, every time mass exodus happens, children are the ones that suffer the most.
The United States has been always generous to refugees from war-torn nations, but after the ISIS terrorist attacks on Paris, the House easily passed a bill Thursday, November 19th, that would suspend the program allowing Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the U.S. until key national security agencies certify they don’t pose a security risk.
President Obama reacted, and in defense of the program said that we are not a nation scared of “widows and orphans.” “We are not well served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic,” Obama said in the Philippines on Wednesday. “We don’t make good decisions if it’s based on hysteria or an exaggeration of risks.”
We could not agree more. We are the most technically advanced nation on the planet. Let’s use this knowledge to accelerate their admission process and allow them re-start their lives in a free and safe country along with their families.
