"Refugees are the most thoroughly screened people who travel into the United States"

With all the fear-mongering coming from Republican presidential candidates and governors, we need a good lesson in the facts.    Here is the reality, as described by Curt Goehring, Executive Director, Center for the Victims of Torture.

"[T]he process for a refugee to be resettled into the United States is extremely rigorous. Before being considered for third country resettlement, most refugees must first register with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In making a referral for resettlement, the UNHCR first conducts an in-depth assessment and background check.

"Only those who pass the screenings and have been determined to be among the most vulnerable populations and not a security risk are referred on to the U.S. Next, the U.S conducts meticulous security screenings, which include biographic and identity investigations; FBI biometric checks of fingerprints and photographs; in-depth, in-person interviews by Department of Homeland Security officers; medical screenings; and other checks by U.S. domestic and international intelligence agencies including the National Counterterrorism Center and National Security Council.

"Refugees are the most thoroughly screened people who travel into the United States.

"Therefore, I am outraged to see people use the Paris attacks as a way to perpetuate the lie that refugees are terrorists and should not be allowed into host countries. We work with refugees every day. They are not terrorists; they are fleeing indiscriminate or targeted violence directed against civilians for political purposes. Their lives have been destroyed by acts of terrorism - whether state sponsored or by extremist groups. This is a time to stand with victims of this horrifying violence, not foster malicious falsehoods.

"We understand the impulse to react. But these are times that require us to keep human dignity at the heart of our individual response. And these are times to emphasize that human rights and the rule of law must be at the core of government response."

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Are you listening Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal?   Are you proud to be pandering to the worst in us?

Instead, I am proud that President Obama and the three Democratic candidates are calling upon us to be better than that, to stick to our American values of compassion and generosity.

Hillary Clinton called the "hateful rhetoric from the GOP . . . a new low."   Martin O'Malley repeated his call for us to accept 65,000 refugees, saying, "There are women, there are children dying. . . .  They are fleeing the same sort of carnage that was unleashed on the people of France. . . . I don't think it's too much to ask of us that we do our part here."

And Bernie Sanders:  "We will not be terrorized or live in fear . . . .  we will not succumb to Islamophobia. . . . We will do what we do best and that is be Americans – fighting racism, fighting xenophobia, fighting fear."

Ralph