By Bradley Dick ’16, Perspectives Editor
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
These are the words engraved on the foot of the Statue of Liberty, which has stood above New York City greeting oppressed immigrants for the past 129 years.
The United States has and always will be a country of and for immigrants. With over 300 million people from every race and religion, the United States is a melting pot. Recently, Syrian refugees have looked to the U.S. to seek shelter from the oppression and violence they face in Syria.
Violence in Syria shows no sign of stopping as we approach the five year mark of a bloody and brutal Syrian Civil War. The war, which began in the spring of 2011, has killed an estimated 350,000 people. Fought between upwards of eight different belligerents, the war has destroyed nearly all of Syria— leaving roughly 7.6 million Syrians displaced.
Recently, more than 5 million of these displaced Syrian refugees have begun migrating to Europe for shelter and protection. However, there are not enough resources in an already unstable Eurozone to house these millions of refugees. While countries such as Germany have offered to allow hundreds of thousands of immigrants accommodation in their country, other nations will not be able to house any refugees. Many European nations in the U.N. are calling on the United States to house the refugees whom they cannot provide for.
Recent terrorist attacks in Paris and California have alarmed many Americans as well as the worldwide community. Fearful of continued ISIS attacks in the United States, many Americans are calling upon their representatives and governors to refuse Syrian refugees.
Politicians such as Donald Trump are using the Syrian Refugee crisis as an opportunity to win supporters prior to the 2016 election. Appearing on many cable news programs following comments made last week, Trump stood by his call to block not only Syrian Refugees, but also all Muslim immigrants—even Muslim-American citizens returning from vacations.
Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering America is wrong on many fronts. First, this country was founded upon the belief in freedom of expression. As a “staunch conservative,” Trump should understand the importance of the First Amendment. Second, as the son of a Scottish immigrant Trump should understand and value the importance of the immigration system.
As the great-grandson of Jewish immigrants, I understand the Syrian refugees’ crisis. My great-grandparents were a part of a large group of Jewish immigrants trying to escape the oppression of Russian and German anti-Semitism. At the time, xenophobic Americans called for the blockage of Jewish immigrants. I would not be here if it was not for the other Americans who stood up for the rights of immigrants just as is described on our Statue of Liberty.
It is now our turn and responsibility to stand up with welcoming arms. It is our job to provide refuge for these Syrian immigrants, but we can only do it as a majority committed to upholding the beliefs that our nation was founded on.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/us/politics/donald-trump-muslims.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War
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