OPINION
BY JOEY LOPES, Junior
The civil war in the Middle Eastern country of Syria is heating up, with the amount of rapid fire coming from both sides. there is no pun intended.
The war is not only affecting the Syrian citizens and the country itself, but it is spreading all across the Middle East and into Europe.
The Radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS is one of the main aggressors in the war, and they are even trying to recruit new soldiers the United States.
With the war taking place, the citizens of Syria are becoming the refugees of Syria. More than 11 million Syrians have been displaced inside their country due to the deadly, violent Civil War. There are nearly 4 million refugees in at least 5 different host countries, with the United States prospecting to become one in 2016.
In the United States, there is currently a plan to relocate some of these refugees into our own country, because by the looks of it, there will be no background checks needed for these people to come here. Germany has introduced background checks for new people coming into their country.
Through a spokesperson in the Obama Administration, President Barack Obama announced in early November 2015 that 10,000 refugees will be accepted into the United States this year.
However, 31 out of the 50 states’ governors, including Nikki Haley of South Carolina, have announced refugees will not be accepted in their respective states.
These thirty-one governors have made the right call. There should be zero refugees admitted; anywhere, anytime. There have been known, proven ISIS terrorists disguised as refugees going into other countries, for the purpose of killing innocent civilians.
This was shown on November 13, 2015 in Paris. Six terrorists who dressed like Syrian Refugees made their way into France and killed over 100 people, and injured hundreds of others in a terrible rampage that left the world in shock.
As I mentioned before, these refugees coming into our country under President Obama’s plan would have limited to no background checks.
I spoke to many people around Blythewood high over the last couple of days, and the strongest response to my question came from Tracey Baxa, the library media assistant.
“I think that to keep our citizens safe, those refugees should be completely checked through and through, just like any other person that wishes to enter this country,” Baxa stated.
This hit me hard, and it hit so close to home. The main goal of our country is to be strong, and keep our citizens safe.
Some refugees of the past have not been the best news for our country. Do the names Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev sound familiar?
The United States gave the Tsarnaev family political asylum (they were refugees.) What did these terrible people do to thank the government?
They blinded, dismembered, and killed innocent Americans at the 2013 Boston Marathon finish line.
Six people were killed in this vicious bombing. Including three people at the scene, a law enforcement officer at a college during a firefight, and one of the brothers, Dzhokhar was killed in another shootout at a 7-Eleven gas station in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Now, I’m not saying all of these refugees are bad, there are some who need legitimate help but because there are a handful of them who cause red flags to be raised, like the Boston bombers and the six terrorists in the Paris attacks.
Some say that it is not American to reject people from coming into our country, but there is nothing more American than wanting to keep fellow citizens safe.
People do not lock their doors of your house because they hate the people outside, they do it because they love the people inside.
