Loading ...U.S. Bishops Defend Outreach to Syrian Refugees Amid Security Concerns
Last week, as the Paris terror attacks provoked a backlash against plans to resettle 85,000 Syrian refugees in the United States by next October, the U.S. bishops urged Americans not to “scapegoat” people fleeing terrorism and wartime conflict.
“I am disturbed … by calls from both federal and state officials for an end to the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States,” said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, in a Nov. 17 statement.
“It can take up to two years for a refugee to pass through the whole vetting process. We can look at strengthening the already-stringent screening program, but we should continue to welcome those in desperate need.”
Bishop Elizondo’s response marked the U.S. bishops’ concern over the heightened political pushback to President Obama’s plan to sharply increase the number of Syrian refugees coming into the country. But it also reflected Church leaders’ firm commitment to refugee outreach through their Office of Migration and Refugee Services, which directs the largest U.S. nonprofit resettlement network in this country.
“We shouldn’t allow our fears to cloud our better judgment. What happened in Paris was a terrible tragedy, but it is still not clear that any Syrian refugee was responsible,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, a leading voice in the Catholic Church on refugee and immigration issues, told the Register.
Like other Catholic leaders, Archbishop Wenski acknowledged the need for stepped-up security, but he questioned whether Syrian refugees should be the focus of concern.
“Syrian refugees are fleeing from terrorism. They are victims of it; they are not inflicting it.”
Responding to news reports that suggested one of the militants carrying out the Paris terror attacks had posed as a Syrian refugee, Archbishop Wenski said, “It is still not clear whether the evidence suggesting the suspect was a refugee may have been a ‘plant’ to provoke the reaction we are seeing.”
Source: www.ncregister.com