Governor Raimondo, for the Love of God, Protect Your People

On November 13th, seven savages terrorized Paris, and threw the world into panic. George Washington University, where I go to school, has been on high alert since then. Campus is about a 5-minute walk from the White House; after ISIS’s attacks in Paris and their subsequent threat against D.C., I couldn’t walk two blocks without seeing a police cruiser or an armed officer. Now, I’m taking the train for Thanksgiving break because I’m too afraid to fly.

In spite of my anxieties, and the anxieties of millions of Americans, our leadership is displaying the same hubris responsible for creating this international nightmare.

President Obama and his administration claim they can check and clear every refugee, but I don’t think he wants us to understand how difficult and time-consuming this process will be. Perhaps he doesn’t fully understand it himself. First off, we’ll have no choice but to ask for help from the Syrian government, led by a Russia-friendly president-for-life who has far more important things to do (like protect his own country and his own people) than be at the West’s beck and call to compile dossiers for every person we choose to allow in. Even if Syria does cooperate, it’s inevitable there will be numerous false positives due to names of refugees matching those on our terror database. No man or machine is expected to be correct every time, but in this situation, any mistake could lead to grave consequences. We are on the defensive. We need to right every time, and only one radical needs to slip through the cracks in order to inflict serious damage.

Even if our security system is flawless, it won’t address the issue of people who have a clean record now but may want to cause us harm in the future. Remember the Tsarnaev brothers? They came to the U.S. from the Russian Caucasus legally and without issue. Alone, they were able to cause substantial destruction. The administration needs to consider the risks of allowing in not only those with an established terrorist history, but also those who may have a clean record but could be exposed to radical ideology while in the United States.

President Obama, the Commander-in-Chief ultimately responsible for the safety of the American people, is willing to put civilians’ lives at risk, for what, to ship in a few thousand refugees because he feels morally obligated? The President is clearly not making preparations to defend the home front. Frankly, his lack of regard for the risks involved with bringing in refugees is practically holding the door open for our enemies.

I’d be more inclined to take the administration at their word about the safety of their refugee plan if they hadn’t been consistently and systematically lying to the American public. Last year, President Obama called ISIS a “JV team”-level group. The day before the Paris attacks, he went on live television and asserted ISIS was “contained”. Now, he returns to Washington amidst claims that U.S. intelligence was altered in order to support a more optimistic narrative about our efforts in the Middle East. If we can’t trust the Obama administration to tell us what we deserve to know about ISIS, how can we trust him to tell us the full story about the people he’s trying to bring through our borders?

Governor Raimondo, please do not buy into President Obama’s foolish optimism. His plan to admit refugees into this country is not only cavalier with American lives, it’s a failure to fulfill the obligations of his oath. You both have similar roles: to protect the people for whom you serve. If our President has no regard for our national security, I beg that you do. For the love of God, rethink your position on this grave matter. Be a good steward, protect your people and stand against President Obama’s terrifying refugee proposal.