Americans should welcome more syrian refugees

Recent refugee from Syria Sandy Khabbazeh poses for a portrait while holding a photo of her family who remain behind in Syria, in Oakland, New Jersey, November 22, 2015.[Photo/CFP]

Almost immediately after the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, more than two dozens of governors in the United States announced that their states would not welcome Syrian refugees. Later when the news came out that a Syrian refugee's passport was found near the body of a Paris suicide bomber, a few more governors, citing security concerns, joined to oppose the entry of Syrian refugees into their states.

These governors' stance goes directly against their president's, who calls on Americans to welcome more Syrian refugees as latter-day Pilgrims. In his Thanksgiving speech to Americans, President Obama again urges them to show generosity to Syrian refugees, reminding them that the Pilgrims who came to North America in 1620 were also fleeing persecution.

Back in September, Secretary of State John Kerry proposed to Congress members that the United States increases the total number of refugees allowed in the country to 75,000 in 2016 from 70,000 this year. In 2017, U.S. government plans to accept 100,000 refugees from all parts of the world. Meanwhile, at least 10,000 Syrian refugees should be accepted into the country in the next fiscal year, starting on October 1. In those days, no opposition to the plan was heard from any of the governors. Actually, the United States began to accept Syrian refugees since 2012, and 1,854 Syrian refugees had settled down and started their new lives, facing little opposition until now.

In fact, this is truly a shock to me when I see so many governors openly refuse refugees from a specific country. I never saw anything similar happened like this after I have lived here for almost two decades. As a nation of immigrants, America has long followed a national policy of accepting immigrants and refugees. It beckons to its shores the downtrodden, the persecuted, and all those "yearning to breathe free." America embraces those who come with good work ethics in search of a land of promises and opportunities. Today more than 13% of the U.S. population are immigrants, the highest level since the 1920s. With this background in mind, I am disappointed at those governors who shut the door to Syrian refugees.

On the other hand, I do understand the governors' concerns about terrorists sneaking into their states by hiding among the flood of Syrian refugees. But those governors are making promises they are unable to keep because states are not empowered to reject immigrants granted refugee status by U.S. federal government. Legally, U.S. state governments do not have the legal foundation for engaging in foreign or diplomatic relations. The federal government assumes the authority in handling issues of immigration, naturalization and deportation.