Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
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Robert
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Post by Robert »

Bootstrap wrote:Please give me some examples where people are successfully working around the current system. So far, nobody has given real examples. So far, the only example I have heard is the "Bowling Green Massacre", which did not happen.
This is a silly and unfair request. If I knew, I would not tell you, I would contact the FBI.

I explained how it could be worked around. Your mind is made up and any further examples will be rejected. I said my piece and am ready to move on. We can only really know what was right in hind sight. Just making a point that a pause in immigration is not evil, nor is allowing some in. There is no way to know in the present what will result in the best outcome.
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Bootstrap
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Post by Bootstrap »

Robert wrote:
Bootstrap wrote:Please give me some examples where people are successfully working around the current system. So far, nobody has given real examples. So far, the only example I have heard is the "Bowling Green Massacre", which did not happen.
This is a silly and unfair request. If I knew, I would not tell you, I would contact the FBI.
Sure, tell the FBI.

If the United State's National Counterterrorism Center, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Customs and Immigration Fraud Detection or the National Security Directorate tell me that there is a security concern, I'm listening. They don't have to tell me all the details. But if the Trump Administration is limiting people's freedom out of security concerns, they should explain enough to justify their actions.

And I get nervous when authorities take extreme and sudden measures without explaining them, then explain them by telling us about massacres that actually never happened, complaining that the media did not give them much coverage. I would like the churches in Durham to be able to help the 50 families that were coming to us in the next few months if it is safe for us to do so.
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Robert
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

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Robert
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

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Josh
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

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And this makes sense. Muslims will fit in better and be more comfortable in a Muslim host society than coming to America and trying to fit in here. And there are plenty of Muslim countries around the world that can accept lots of refugees, and that also seem to want a lot of cheap imported labour.
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Post by Szdfan »

Robert wrote:You explained how not who. Who are the people doing all this? Do you know any of them personally and can you vouch for their sincerity and that they are not accepting any bribes? How do you know these people are really people of integrity?
My sister is a lawyer used to clerk in the immigration court in New York City that's operated by the Department of Justice. She has number of friends and colleagues who are part of the vetting process. She had some friends that were about to go overseas to vet refugees when Trump's EO shut the program down (I'm not sure what's going to happen to them now that a judge has temporarily blocked the order). The people who are doing the vetting are career public servants who work for agencies in the federal government. My sister trusts them. I trust my sister.

My sister said that the biggest problem in the immigration court system is that they are understaffed.
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Post by Szdfan »

Robert wrote: Lastly, the most persecuted in Syria right now are the Christians, yet I have heard little outcry for our brothers and sisters of faith. This is one reason why Trump wanted to move them to the front of the line, yet all the liberal outcry says let them die. They are being targeted. Not just in the way but being sought out. I would say bring the Muslims over if I saw a country predominately Christian seeking out and killing them because of their faith. Yet this is happening and most are totally silent about it. While I may not agree with Trump on how he is going about it, at least someone is seeing this and wanting to address it.
As you have said, it's more complicated than that. Yes, Christians are being persecuted in Syria, but so are a whole bunch of other groups as well. The Christians initially supported Assad early in the war and so many of them have received protection from the Syrian army. Other groups that are also heavily persecuted include the Kurds and Yazadis. The Sunni majority population in Syria has also experienced persecution because the majority of Assad's government and military leadership comes from the Alawite sect. And of course some of the rebel opposition forces have massacred Alawites, because they view them as heretics.

I don't think we have a good sense here in the US of how sectarian this conflict is, in which both pro and anti-government forces have tortured, murdered civilians, attacked hospitals, etc. We tend to see the entire Muslim world as monolithic without recognizing or understanding that there are lots of sects and ethnicities in Islam. Just as Christianity is not a monolithic bloc, neither is Islam.

One theme that's emerged here on MD is that Muslims refugees should be sent to Muslim majority countries because they would be more comfortable with the culture. Yet Arab Christians are culturally also Arab and would experience the same cultural challenges in the US that Muslims would have.
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Re: Refugees: who vets them, and how?

Post by Bootstrap »

Szdfan wrote:One theme that's emerged here on MD is that Muslims refugees should be sent to Muslim majority countries because they would be more comfortable with the culture. Yet Arab Christians are culturally also Arab and would experience the same cultural challenges in the US that Muslims would have.
Our team was trying to figure out if we were visiting our families too often and overwhelming them. One of the couples on the team is a Christian family from Lebanon who grew up in a Christian Arab culture, and they went to discuss this question with them.

At our team's potluck, they reported on this. Nadia told us they had replied, "Nadia, we are Arabs!" I had no idea what that meant, so I asked her. She looked a little surprised that this wasn't obvious, and then told us that meant that they love to show hospitality and to be with people. These Christian Arabs are doing a great job helping us understand Muslim Arabs because of their shared culture.
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