A March 30 letter to the editor on “travel bans” raises so many issues, I am uncertain where to begin. It is unclear if the author is talking about tourists or refugees.
The first point that must be made is that Trump’s executive order has been stayed because it is designed to affect primarily people of the Muslim faith. Our Constitution does not allow for a “religious test” for any reason. As of 2010, there were an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. If the U.S. is to make all of them our enemies, things will not go well, especially because we currently have about 3.3 million Muslims in this country. And, if you think you know what a Muslim looks like, consider that Muslims represent the most racially diverse religion in this nation.
But what bothered me the most about this letter, was its blanket statement that “none of them have the educational background that would enable them to be assimilated into our culture nor do they have any intention of obtaining one.” I am assuming the author is now talking about refugees and I would really like to know the source of this information. If we look at Syrian refugees already in the US, “44 percent of Syrian immigrants have just a high school diploma or less, compared with 38 percent of native-born Americans. But 39 percent of Syrian-Americans have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 30 percent of the native-born,” from Newsweek magazine.
Let’s be clear, persons admitted to the U.S. as refugees are vetted by a 20-step (or more) process that can take up to two years. They represent normal, everyday people who have found themselves homeless and nationless as war rips what was their country apart. They seek only a safe home where they can rebuild their lives.
There are so many more falsehoods in the letter, but I am limited in my response. I will only conclude by saying that the assertion that “innocents” “groped” some Europeans and Trump is going to save us from that same fate is hysterical.
Steve Guinn
Edmonds
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