All my life I've heard that we are a land of immigrants, and I'm proud that we are. But right now I am perplexed -- really perplexed and conflicted. I'm beginning to wonder just how welcoming we should be. I believe that recently we've become too welcoming for our own good, and if we continue on the path that we are on it will be at our own peril.
My statements about "too welcoming for our own good" and "at our own peril" are based on recent events, one being a report from The Congressional Research Service. I wonder how many of you are familiar with a little-known law on the books known as The Refugee Act of 1980. I wasn't aware of this Act until recently and I certainly was not aware of how many people have been admitted to this country under this Act. I was surprised to learn that more than 2,800,000 people now reside here who have been resettled. Early arrivals in the 1980s and 1990s were mainly from Vietnam and other southeast Asian nations and from former Soviet Union countries. Recent arrivals are mainly from Africa and Middle Eastern countries and most are Muslims hailing from Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The cost of this program has grown exponentially. Since 2008 it has ballooned from $600 million to over $1.57 billion in 2014. For the last few years admissions have been limited to 70,000 per year. That means the cost to American taxpayers is about $22,285 per refugee. That's a lot of moola. Do you know how our money is spent on these new arrivals? The old folks get Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and everyone gets Medicaid plus Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and, of course, food stamps (SNAP) benefits. The foregoing comes directly from the report of the Congressional Research Service.
Here are a few more facts from this report. Unlike immigrants who enter through family or employment ties there is no requirement to demonstrate economic self-sufficiency. How about that? Oh, one other thing: in 2008 Congress (with Democrats in charge) amended the Act to eliminate HIV infection as health related grounds for inadmissibility to this country.
Another report noted that they are clannish and want to be left alone, invoking life-styles and customs similar to those of the countries they abandoned. This includes some form of Sharia Law. Most recent arrivals have come from countries with high unemployment rates where they customarily receive government hand-outs. According to Pew Research, Muslims now comprise about 3 percent of the U.S. population, growing to 6 percent by 2030. Information I found most disturbing from Pew is in a 2013 survey which disclosed 8 percent of Muslims in the U.S. believed that violence against civilians is often or sometimes justified. That is scary. It means about three-quarters of a million Muslims living among us believe that sort of violence is sometimes justified.
This brings me to my main and final point. I believe that we should restrict any further growth in Muslim communities in this country and the Refugee Act should be suspended or defunded. Our enemies in the Middle East, especially ISIS and Iran, are dedicated to the premise of Death to America. It is no longer just a slogan. They mean business. FBI Director, James Comey made this crystal clear in testimony before Congress last week when he said that recent incidents in the U.S. inspired by messages on the internet and other social media sponsored by ISIS represent "a call to arms" and that radicalization among young people in many communities advocating action against our military is spreading more rapidly than ever imagined just a few years ago.
Since 2004 nearly a half-million Muslims have been admitted to this country under this Act. We are sowing the seeds of our own destruction. We need look no further than the brutal murder of five members of our military in Chattanooga, committed by a foreign-born Jihadist whose family was resettled here.
I opine, you decide.
-- Willie Williams is a Siloam Springs resident. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 07/22/2015