Above Photo: Rally participants expressed concern for 4.5 million Syrian refugees worldwide./Photo by John Zangas
About a hundred people rallied at the White House on Saturday to denounce efforts by state governors and Congress to deny Syrian refugees sanctuary in the U.S. They held signs saying, “Refugees welcome here,” and invoked the inscription on the Statue of Liberty to express their support for allowing those from conflict-ridden regions to seek asylum here.
They were particularly critical of a bill passed by Congress on Friday which would create even more barriers for Syrians hoping enter the U.S.
“This bill is basically saying: ‘We don’t want you here,’” said Dania Shafei, co-organizer with Immediate Action Maryland for Syrian Refugees. She said the year-long process to obtain entry would become even more difficult with the bill’s passage.
After Islamic State (ISIS) took credit for attacks which killed 129 people in Paris, many U.S. political figures have scapegoated Syrian refugees and depict them as potential threats–even though none of the Paris attackers were Syrian, nor were any of them refugees.
Some people who attended the White House rally believed that this position was opportunistic fear-mongering, pointing out that Muslims are far more likely to be victims of ISIS than to join it.
“A lot of those people are going to be women who are widowed and orphans and people who actually need to be here, because they have no opportunity elsewhere,” said Shafei.
Many Syrians refugees have had their villages, homes and livelihoods destroyed by the ongoing four-year war there. Some at the rally said that they are themselves descendants of immigrants who came to the United States to escape dangerous circumstances, such as Jews before World War II. They deplored the current political climate as xenophobic and full of hate.
Ahmad Asaad, also a co-organizer of the rally, said that current measures in place to screen applicants for asylum is more than enough to satisfy security concerns. “There is an extremely rigorous vetting process,” he said. “The screening process can take anywhere from 18 months to three years.”
The Syrian conflict has resulted in 12 million displaced from their homes and over four million refugees. Many have been crossing borders into Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, with 700,000 making it to Europe by treacherous voyages across the Mediterranean or long treks through other countries.
Few Syrian refugees have been accepted to the U.S. in the first place, and at most only 10,000 candidates would be admitted in the next year.
Meanwhile, countries with the world’s largest military powers, including Russia, France and the U.S., are intensifying campaigns to defeat ISIS. As a result, even more civilians are caught in the crossfire.
Asaad believes Western nations should acknowledge their culpability. “If we’re going to make refugees by destabilizing the entire region, we have a responsibility to take them in,” he said.