Colin Taylor is the Managing Editor at OccupyDemocrats. He's a graduate of Bennington College with a BA in History and Political Science. His parents have worked for UNICEF and USAID for over fifteen years and five countries across the world.
Posted on 11/16/2015 6:09:32 PM PST by Maceman
The far-right wing in both America and Europe have seized on the Paris terror attacks as an excuse to turn away the thousands of desperate refugees who are fleeing the terror and violence of ISIS. Thirteen American governors (all Republican) have announced they will refuse to accept Syrian refugees in their states, demonstrating a remarkable ignorance of Constitutional law. As ThinkProgress noted, "the Supreme Court explained in Hines v. Davidowitz, "the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution." States do not get to overrule the federal government on matters such as this one."
Those declarations by GOP governors are riding the wave of Islamophobia coursing through the right-wing. Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz both proposed profiling refugees by religion and "only accepting Christians," because despite the fact that Christian terrorist attacks take place in our country on a regular basis, Cruz thinks "there is no meaningful risk of Christians committing acts of terror." Trump said that he would "strongly consider" shutting down mosques in America, completely contradicting his widely professed devotion for "religious freedom." Mike Huckabee called for the new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, to halt the "importation" of refugees or resign.
President Obama ripped these xenophobic bigots in his Monday press conference, chastising them for abandoning American values and buying into their own fearmongering:
"When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians, but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are. we don’t have religious tests to our compassion."
He is absolutely right. While there are certainly dangers we need to address, this kind of reaction from the right-wing is exactly what ISIS wanted. By reacting with fear and discrimination, we marginalize more Muslims and push them into the arms of extremists. The passport that indicated one of the attackers was a Syrian refugee is likely fake, and an obvious plant to inflame fear of refugees. These people are desperately fleeing their homes because the murderous horrors of the Paris attacks are a daily occurrence in ISIS territory – a mass grave of eighty murdered women was recently discovered in Iraq's Sinjar province by liberating Kurdish peshmerga units. It is our moral obligation to accept and protect the incoming refugees in the face of unthinkable violence.
Esp. our governor in Texas.
Seriously, bring it, leftscum!!!
/obviously not directed at you, Blueflag
Well, Mr. Obama (I refuse to any longer dignify your idiocy with the designation “President”, as doing so for 7 years has made me ill)...
Tell you what. There are plenty of abhorrent passages in the Koran which, so far as I know, are not discredited elsewhere in the Koran / by The Prophet.
Anyone who wants admittance to the US must proclaim on a public (ie., YouTube) video that they reject those passages. If they do that, pass close scrutiny by the community willing to accept them, agree to work against radical, er, traditional Islam, and agree to monitoring should they wish to leave that community, then, ok. We’ll consider your application to come here.
Insane doesn’t come close. They are WAY beyond that...
TEXAS has your very apt premise in their state constitution.
Chapter and verse.
Oh where oh where is the barf alert on this piece of filth?
I don’t know what I loathe more about liberals....their twisted delusional mindset, or their ever pressing need to force others to live in a world of insanity.
They are foreign enemies disguised as “refugees”, who would like to become DOMESTIC ENEMIES.
No Sale.
Smoke that, Obama.
Really?
Tradition is not a suicide pact.
This is a citizen sanctuary policy. Each state is declaring itself a sanctuary from refugees. We already know this One supports sanctuary policies.
Also...don’t forget to make them eat a handful of bacon bits.
That is hard to argue with. And all the more reason to be diligent, prepared and armed.
Colin Taylor is the Managing Editor at OccupyDemocrats. He's a graduate of Bennington College with a BA in History and Political Science. His parents have worked for UNICEF and USAID for over fifteen years and five countries across the world.
These aren’t Congress approved immigrants.
These are 0blama dictated ‘refugees’/potential terrorists.
Governors trump EO’s, in that case, no?
Good for Huckleberry to call for Ryan’s resignation, if he doesn’t call for this invasion to stop. FWIW.
? Someone said South Carolina finally came on board. Maybe they meant North Carolina.
Well, all i have to say to the author is that it was ilegal for the Muslim hordes to come to Europe and America.
Liberals lecturing about “the law” makes me laugh.
Colin, Sanctuary Cities are illegal too, but that doesn’t stop you.
Occupy Democrats, founded in 2012, is an advocacy group created to counterbalance the Republican tea party, and to “give President Obama and other progressive Democrats a Congress that will work with them to grow the economy, create jobs, promote fairness and fight inequality, and get money out of politics!”
Our mission is to Occupy Democrats on November 2016 AND BEYOND by voting in a LANDSLIDE of progressive Democratic candidates! While the right-wing Tea Party has an entire caucus in Congress ruthlessly pursuing its extreme agenda, the Occupy movement has yet to produce even a single congressperson. Occupy Democrats is a new and growing MOVEMENT dedicated to changing that! Let’s give the Tea Party the boot - for good! - by electing a slate of newly-energized progressives to Congress. Working through the democratic process, We The People will rise up to give President Obama and other progressive Democrats a Congress that will work with them to grow the economy, create jobs, promote fairness and fight inequality, and get money OUT of politics!
I didn’t notice an actual law cites as being broken...
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