by Alice Greene, 12/1/15
Estimates
show that over 250 Americans have attempted to join ISIS. And that number is
growing. According to a CBS News report, a shocking 25% of them hail from
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many are former refugees.
Minneapolis
has become a sort of recruitment center for the terrorist organization we know
as ISIS. The Cedar Riverside community, which houses the largest Somali
population in the country, is of special interest.
“Many
came as refugees in the 1900s. The unemployment rate here is 21%, three times
the state average,” writes CBS reporter Jamie Yuccas. “An alarming number of
young Somali men from this neighborhood have left to join extremist groups.
Since 2007, two dozen have joined Al-Shabab in Somalia.”
Cedar
Riverside is trying to put a stop to the recruiting effort by upping police
presence in the area. The cops – most of them Somalis – have been urged to
create relationships with people living in the community.
Despite
this and other similar occurrences, Obama shows no sign of changing his plans
to resettle thousands of refugees from the Middle East. Republican lawmakers
have expressed concern not only about the potential of terrorists sneaking in
among the refugees – but also about the effects these individuals will have on
refugees already living here.
Alabama
Senator Jeff Sessions explains: As the president’s “officials concluded, there
is no way to prevent refugees from radicalizing after their entrance to the US
– just as has happened with Somali refugees. It is an unpleasant but unavoidable fact that bringing in a large
unassimilated flow of migrants from the Muslim world creates the conditions
possible for radicalization and extremism to take hold. The FBI director tells
us there are now active ISIS investigations in all 50 US states.”
Last
week, Senator Sessions and his team released reports on 12 refugees who have
been publically involved in terrorism during 2015. Sessions, along with Texas
Senator Ted Cruz, are pressing Obama for information regarding the histories of
over 70 individuals. Earlier this month, Sessions and Cruz released the
following statement: “In just the last year, refugees and other migrants
admitted to the US from Bosnia, Somalia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Ghana, Kuwait, and Bangladesh have been implicated in terrorist
activity.
Although
I’m not sure if this threat would actually scare terrorists, Sessions and
Cruz are hard at work on a bill (Expatriate Terrorist Act) that would
strip citizenship from any Americans who join terrorist
organizations. Before Thanksgiving recess, the House managed to pass
legislation that will supposedly straighten out the refugee vetting process.
However, Republican lawmakers continue trying to defund the whole process – at
least until certain conditions are met.
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