The open-border and refugee crises and our handling of them is not a question of loving vs. hateful, it’s suicide vs. self-preservation.  Where there is opportunity, the bad will come with the good.  That’s why our immigration process and enforcing legal immigration laws are so critical.  If the Obama administration is demanding now that we take in however many tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, how will we vet them?  Where will they stay while they’re being vetted?  Add to this Obama’s next round of executive-ordered amnesty for the however-many tens of thousands of illegal immigrants already here.  It’s a big uncompassionate mess.

When I think of the immigration process my husband went through to become a citizen, he had a background check to ensure he wasn’t a criminal; he was medically tested and immunized to ensure he wasn’t carrying disease; he had to declare his intention of embracing America’s constitution, language and values (taking an oath much similar to the one our military and representatives take).  When you immigrate to any country, you must prove you’re not a threat and that you’re there for the right reasons.  This is good.  It’s compassionate.  It protects both citizen and immigrant.  It sets both up for success.

Much as we may want to help, to throw open the doors to our communities without care and consideration would be reckless.  For all the hard-working illegal immigrants or the sincere, authentic refugees seeking asylum, there are bad actors.  We don’t know why any new-comer is here until we ask them and verify.  All it takes is one bad actor to reap disaster.  A radical with a machine-gun on a train, for example.  Legal immigration and enforcing our laws protects citizen and immigrant alike.  The Syrian refugee crisis requires some similar process.  There’s only one way to welcome the good and sift out the bad: by controlling the flow and vetting all who enter.

The legal immigration system is only broken in the sense that the current laws aren’t enforced, our border is a sieve, and the government bureaucracy can’t handle the numbers it has now, letting in the likes of the Tsarnaev brothers (who were refugees, by the way) despite repeated warnings and red flags.  If our government alternately refuses to or can’t deal with our current illegal immigration problem, what’s going to happen when we add tens of thousands of Syrian refugees?