SE Michigan Township Shuts Door on Syrian Refugees

WATERFORD, MI — Commissioners in a southeast Michigan township unanimously approved a symbolic measure that, though unenforceable, sends a clear message amid a presidential campaign punctuated by strong rhetoric on immigration. The resolution, approved 7-0 by the Waterford Township Board of Commissioners Monday, attempts to shut out refugees from Syria and other nations.

Within the next 30 days, a similar ordinance will be considered in Oakland County, Michigan’s No. 1 destination for Syrian refugees. There, County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has threatened to sue the State Department to stop refugee resettlement “until the rules are adhered to.”

Both the township’s resolution and Patterson’s threat of a lawsuit come as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made vetting of Muslim refugees a central theme in his campaign. He has proposed an “extreme vetting” process, though he has not specifically said what that process will look like.

“We have no idea who these people are, where they come from,” Trump has said of Syrian refugees. “I always say, Trojan horse. Watch what’s going to happen, folks. It’s not going to be pretty.”

Several hundred people who are equally divided on the issue of refugee resettlement attended Monday’s meeting in Waterford Township, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“We’re not saying Syrians are never going to be welcome in Waterford, (but) the bottom line is, we’ve got to protect what’s ours,” township Supervisor Gary Wall said.

Township Trustee Anthony Bartolotta acknowledged the resolution is toothless but said “it lets the other elected officials know how we feel.”

Specifically, the measure states the township “will not actively participate in the Refugee Resettlement Program until the program has been significantly reformed and until it has been demonstrated that the townships of Oakland County have the capacity to absorb refugees without diverting funds from needy residents or exposing their residents to unwarranted security risks.”

See Also

• Official in No.1 County for No. 1 State for Syrian Refugees to Sue
• World’s Most Celebrated Syrian Refugee ‘Home’ in Michigan
• Read Obama’s ‘Sweet Welcome’ to Troy-Bound Syrian
• Syrian Village ‘Imminent Threat’: Oakland Executive
• Michigan Governor Pauses Syrian Refugee Plan

Bill Mullan, Patterson’s spokesman, told the Free Press that so far, government officials “have not been interested in complying” with the 1980 law that governs how and where refugees are resettled.

“Brooks warned them that litigation is an option,” Mullan told the newspaper of the outspoken county executive’s threat to sue to stop the influx of refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

Among those residents opposing the resolution was lifelong Waterford Township Gary Spiece, 69, who called it “unpatriotic and unconstitutional” and warned against letting “fear guide our thoughts and actions.”

On the other side was Bill Jankowski, who said immigration laws exist for a reason and that people who went through the immigration process legally “have every right to be here.”

“But if you didn’t, I don’t want you here,” he said.

Refugee resettlement is a long-simmering issue in Michigan, mainly among Republicans, who hold all of the Waterford Township board seats. Republicans also control both houses of the Legislature, and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is a Republican.

After the terror attacks in Paris last November, Snyder was the first of governors in 22 states — all but one of them Republicans — to pause refugee resettlement programs until security clearance and vetting processes were made more clear. Michigan takes in more Syrian refugees than any other state in the country, according to the U.S. State Department.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, a member of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, said in an email to the Free Press that he is satisfied that background checks on refugees are thorough. Refugees are screened first by the United Nations, then are subject to background checks from the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI, Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the State Department, Peters’ office said.

“Refugees entering the United States go through the most rigorous screening processes of any traveler admitted into our country, requiring biographic and biometric data and security checks by multiple counterterrorism agencies — a process we should continue to review and strengthen,” Peters said. “Michigan is home to a strong and patriotic Arab-American community, and I do not believe we should shut our doors to people fleeing the brutality of ISIS.”

After Monday’s vote, Samaritas — formerly Lutheran Social Services, the largest refugee resettlement agency in Michigan and the fourth-largest in the country — said in a statement that it remains “dedicated to welcoming refugees seeking safe haven in our state.”

“As Americans, our own roots trace back to refugees and immigrants seeking freedom and opportunity,” the agency said.

State Rep. Jim Runestad, a Republican from White Lake, told the Free Press after Monday’s Waterford Township meeting that officials don’t have issues because of “ethnicity or bigotry” but rather are concerned about the vetting process and the extra costs to schools to absorb children of refugees.

“The federal government isn't paying any of that," he said.

This year alone, Samaritas placed 904 refugees in southeast Michigan, about 135 of them from Syria in Oakland County.

Among the most celebrated is Refaai Hamo, the Syrian civil engineer with a doctorate whose haunting story of loss and hope for the future pierced the world’s heart, including President Obama’s. Hamo said at a conference shortly after his arrival at the Detroit Metro Airport in December that he is grateful for the chance start a new chapter of his life in Oakland County.

Hamo and family members who survived an attack by ISIS insurgents in their native Syria have resettled in Troy, which is the No. 1 destination for refugee resettlement in Michigan. Since 2011, some 486 Syrian refugees have resettled in Troy, according to the State Department.

Photo by Tomoaki INABA via Flickr Commons