Cooper: Immigration, it's not 1979 anymore

Syria refugee Nedal Al-Hayk works as a fabricator in Warren, Mich.
Syria refugee Nedal Al-Hayk works as a fabricator in Warren, Mich.

If the United States had an immigration policy it enforced, the Syrian immigration crisis might be easier to sort out.

But President Obama, relying on his own better judgment, used an executive order late last year to delay the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants. In some 20 sanctuary cities, officials say they won't cooperate with immigration authorities to find those who can be deported. And earlier this year, the administration issued a report that said immigration authorities should stop using state and local police in immigration enforcement to build trust between police and their communities.

Add to that the inflated figures from early in the administration when it appeared more illegal immigrants were being deported than today. Turns out, according to the president, "the statistics are actually a little deceptive because what we've been doing is apprehending folks at the border and sending them back. That is counted as a deportation even though they may have only been held for a day or 48 hours."

And Obama's Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, testifying before Congress in 2014, said the administration had changed how deportations were counted to conceal what The New York Times described as a "pronounced shift away from removals of immigrants living in the interior of the country."

Into that morass comes the Syrian crisis. Now the administration wants the U.S. to offer legal status to 10,000 refugees from the war-torn country, more than four times the 1,854 who were admitted to the U.S. from 2012 through September 2015.

What has changed since the more than 300,000 refugees were accepted from Vietnam in 1979-1980 and the more than 120,000 who arrived from Cuba during the Mariel boatlift in 1980?

A lot.

The Middle East, a powder keg for centuries with disputes among Muslims, Jews and Christians, has worsened with the rise of an extremist Islamic culture. "Death to America" is the shouted mantra in many of the region's countries. Unchecked immigration to Western Europe from many of the region's countries has resulted in calls for separatist laws and in violence.

Americans, normally a welcoming people since most families here once were immigrants, are wary. They fear situations not unlike that visited upon Paris last week, where at least one of the suspects believed to be involved in the massacre of 129 entered Europe among the current wave of Syrian refugees. They fear people from such closed societies will not assimilate like Americans always have. They fear the unknown.

Many of the Syrian refugees who have come to the U.S. since 2012 have been mothers and children, often victims of torture or violence, and often religious minorities. They are likely to have found - and would find - a warm welcome. It's the men, like those who make up the great majority of the Islamic State forces, who are the most worrisome. How would they fare not living in the male-dominant society in which they lived in the Middle East? Could they fit in? How easily would it be to radicalize them?

To date, more than half of U.S. governors have said they do not wish to accommodate any of the Syrian refugees. It's actually a federal question, but individual states can make the road toward resettlement difficult.

The problem, the governors say, comes in the vetting process. There is no accurate way to check refugee backgrounds in the Middle East country.

And, at least for the next 14 months, we have a president who is unwilling to enforce the immigration laws already on the book. What other decisions might he make, through executive orders, to shortcut the process in which the refugees might be accepted?

As of now, a State Department official said in September, according to Fox News, it takes 18 to 24 months to process a refugee application. In that time, eligibility is determined by the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, the application (if accepted) is processed at one of nine Resettlement Support Centers around the world, then a security clearance check, an in-person interview, a medical screening and other steps - involving agencies such as Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center - are done before a refugee can come to the U.S.

Since time is of the essence, as people escape Syria, perhaps a middle ground can be found to accept - with the vetting currently available - women and children in cases where no man is involved. Then, as better federal and state safeguards are put in place, other families can be - with careful deliberation - considered.

Unfortunately, 2015 is not what now seems like an innocent 1979, a president is unwilling to enforce current immigration laws, and all the refugees coming here may not necessarily be looking for freedom and opportunity.

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