Political leaders seeking to shut down Syrian resettlement in the United States have it wrong. The evidence is overwhelming that resettlement is necessary to prevent the spread of the Syrian conflict and to give hope to the thousands of brave Syrians who have resisted not just a brutal Assad regime but also Islamic State and other violent Islamist groups. Shutting resettlement down will make the refugee crisis worse and more dangerous.
The United Nations is identifying 400,000 Syrians, just 10 percent of the nearly 4 million Syrians registered as refugees in five Middle Eastern countries. The asylum seekers who have fled to Europe are not eligible for resettlement in the U.S.
The U.N. has a strong vetting process and will identify families for resettlement. Priority will be given to the most vulnerable refugees, including torture survivors, people with serious medical conditions, children and teenagers on their own, and women and children at risk. All of these individuals will be identified by the U.N. even before they go through the U.S. process led by the Department of Homeland Security.
No vetting process can make guarantees, but the population identified by the U.N. and vetted by both organizations has worked successfully in alleviating crises in dozens of other countries. There’s no reason to believe Syria will be any different. Ignoring it, however, will make it worse.
