Trump Must Shut Down Biden’s Refugee Disaster on Day 1

Written by Daniel Horowitz

Who is the victim and who is the aggressor in a conflict between Bashar al-Assad’s Alawites and Sunni “rebel” terrorists in Syria? What happens when ISIS clashes with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, other al-Qaeda factions, Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters, and pockets of Hezbollah militias thrown into the mix?

Under Joe Biden’s insane refugee policies, both sides can claim credible fears of religious or ethnic persecution from their rivals. As a result, we’ve allowed individuals from all these warring groups into our country to live as our neighbors.

With Syria now under new leadership, it’s time for the Sunnis admitted from Syria to go home.

Meanwhile, Christian sects — the only groups with legitimate fears from all the Islamic terrorist factions — have made up less than 2% of Syrian refugees admitted since the civil war began. President Trump must address this injustice immediately.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, the United States has admitted nearly 50,000 refugees through fiscal year 2024, plus an additional 1,000 per month so far this year. Surely, this must mean we’ve prioritized Christians and Druze refugees.

Wrong.

According to the State Department’s WRAPS database, 98% of Syrian refugees admitted are from Islamic sects, nearly all Sunni. Somehow, al-Qaeda affiliates and sympathizers are now considered great American neighbors simply because they fear Assad and his Shiite allies. This imbalance in refugee admissions needs immediate correction.

Of the 50,000 Syrians admitted as refugees, only 798 have been Christians, and just 28 Yazidis have been granted refugee status. Even from Iraq, where Yazidis were slaughtered by ISIS, the U.S. has admitted only 161 Yazidi refugees.

Iraq is a prime example of the flaws in our refugee program. Of the 82,500 Iraqi refugees admitted since fiscal year 2012, only a quarter have been Christians, even though they should constitute 100% of those seeking refuge. Instead, the program allows both radical Shiites and Sunnis to enter the United States, as long as they can claim persecution by the other group.

Iraq is saturated with Sunni and Shiite jihadist factions, yet each group can qualify for refugee status by demonstrating minority persecution within a specific neighborhood. This policy effectively imports dangerous terrorists who are fighting each other abroad into American communities.

A glaring example is Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, who arrived in the United States as a refugee in August 2016, presumably under the guise of fleeing persecution by the Assad regime. In reality, Alowemer was a Sunni terrorist. In June 2019, he was arrested in Pittsburgh for plotting a detailed terrorist attack on a local church and attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

How many more Middle Eastern refugees share Alowemer’s religious and political beliefs, given that many were admitted due to intra-Islamic sectarian conflicts? This question underscores the urgent need to reassess and reform U.S. refugee policies.

In recent years, the U.S. refugee program has admitted roughly equal numbers of Sunnis and Shias. Ironically, radical elements of both groups have settled in places like Bowling Green, Kentucky, where reports of violence between them have now emerged. By admitting immigrants not for their love of American values or their status as persecuted minorities but based on sectarian violence itself, we have imported these conflicts onto our shores. “Invade the world, invite the world,” indeed.

Since the Iraq War, the United States has admitted over 170,000 Iraqi refugees. This trend exemplifies the “invade the world, invite the world” phenomenon. The refugee admissions process has failed to ensure that individuals coming to America share a commitment to its values or pose no threat to national security.

In fiscal year 2024, President Biden admitted over 100,000 refugees, mainly from regions marked by tribal warfare in Africa, Islamic civil wars in the Middle East, or illegal immigrants from Latin America — many of whom hail from relatively homogenous nations.

How many of these refugees can credibly assert that “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” was the “central reason” for their application, as federal law requires?

Many seem to be escaping the general conditions of life in the third world, rather than qualifying as true refugees. Others are involved in two-way sectarian conflicts that jeopardize U.S. national security. Still more, particularly those from Latin America, come from homogenous nations but have had their illegal immigration status legitimized through misuse of the refugee laws.

President Trump needs to shut down the current refugee program on day one, leaving only a few thousand slots available for individuals who are truly part of a persecuted minority, not warring factions. The Refugee Act of 1980 grants the president sole authority to set the annual cap for refugee intake, making this change entirely within his power.

Regarding Syria, Trump should take an even bolder step. With Syria now under the leadership of a Sunni president — one celebrated by the corporate left-wing media and the Biden administration — it’s time for the Sunnis admitted from Syria to go home. Those who have not yet been naturalized should be sent back. Their admission under the refugee program was based on a pretense that no longer exists, making their continued presence in the country an abuse of the refugee statute.

The shift in Syrian leadership is even more significant for Europe, which faced a Syrian migration crisis comparable to America’s influx of Latin American immigrants. If European leaders had foresight, they would band together, declare the Syrian civil war over, and ask the millions of Syrians to leave. Then again, Western leaders often struggle to differentiate immigration from conquest.