President Donald Trump’s executive orders are changing the United States’ policy on accepting refugees, and that has caused quite a stir this past month. Considering that there are more refugees in the world now than ever before, what is the U.S. responsibility in helping those who are seeking asylum?
Contributor for Opportunity Lives, Patrick Brennan joined Carrie Sheffield and Clay Aiken on Bold TV on Feb. 10 to discuss a whiteboard he created on Solutions Studio called “Let’s take a real look at our refugee policies.”
There are more than 20 million refugees outside of their home country today, Patrick said, adding in his article that that number breaks down to “almost one out of every 100 people worldwide.” It isn’t just Syrian refugees; there are conflicts around the world forcing people to resettle.
A huge enabler for this movement out of areas of conflict is that people today are more mobile in general, Clay said.
Standing in the way of this much this mobility is the cost of resettling. Patrick said that although Trump is focusing on national security, there is also the fiscal argument against accepting a large number of people from these conflicts.
“The reality we have to look at is that these people are going to stay in their region and hopefully return to their home country someday,” Patrick said.
Clay jumped in, adding that the argument that it’s cheaper to settle a refugee in their home region is a miscalculation. “They are not living in conditions any of us would consider acceptable,” he said.
“We shouldn’t assume that people want to leave and want to come to America and take advantage of our food stamp program,” Clay said. “They want to live at home.”
And although the cost of resettling refugees is one argument against accepting a large number of those struggling to get out of conflict zones, another is the threat to national security.
“There’s no doubt [applying for refugee status in the U.S.] is an extensive process, but the FBI and a lot of national security experts have said this isn’t sufficient,” Patrick said. “There are a lot of serious people who look at this and say there are definitely holes in the system.”
Clay fired back, asking what the count was on how many terrorist attacks have come from refugees in the last 10 years was. “There haven’t been any, I believe.”
Although there have not been any fatal attacks from refugees, there are several instances of people seeking asylum from countries not included on the list of banned countries that have committed acts of terror.
What are your thoughts? What is our responsibility in the U.S. regarding refugees? Let us know in the comments.
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