The historical treatment of refugees has varied depending on various circumstances, such as widespread warfare, prejudices against ethnic aspects of potential refugees, or logistical complications that arise when a country opens its borders and provides asylum -- often times these variables combine, presenting extremely complex issues with no clear answers. Currently refugees from the middle east -- namely from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq -- are receiving the most international attention of those claiming refugee status. Conditions unfit for civilian life have driven them out of their homes towards westernized nations in hopes of gaining asylum and rebuilding their lives, yet their reception has been far from hospitable throughout multiple countries. The state of affairs throughout the Middle East lays the groundwork for this paper: knowledge of the situation present throughout the Middle East, namely Syria, is required to fully comprehend the plight of today's refugees; the treatment of refugees concerns our ethical views as well as our duty to preserve basic human rights, yet we must still ensure our own safety and that of future generations. So while the threat of extremist agents gaining entry to the United States as refugees certainly merits caution, it does not constitute grounds to deny refugees asylum within the US. In this light, additional vetting of refugees seeking asylum in the US would prevent the injustices closing our borders would cause while accounting for the potential threat of terrorism were an open border policy adopted.

Knowledge of the events leading up to today's refugee crisis is necessary to truly grasp the scope of the issue. Turbulence in the Middle East dates back as far as the crusades, but the chain of events resulting in today's refugee crisis can be traced back to a series of revolutions throughout the Middle East beginning in late 2010, also known as the Arab Spring of 2011 (Abdel Salam). Multiple longstanding authoritarian regimes were overthrown throughout this period, beginning in the middle of December, 2010 in Tunisia (Abdel Salam). Extreme discontent with disparities in wealth, corruption riddled administrations, and inadequate or slowly moving social reform drove these revolutions, which spread from Tunisia to Arab-Asia (Abdel Salam). These protests are believed to have influenced multiple other movements throughout the world, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and other peaceful political revolutions throughout Asia, like demonstrations in the Maldives that lead to the removal of their president -- this worldwide movement demonstrates the importance and power of the Arab Spring revolutions (Abdel Salam). Technology and social media also played significant roles throughout these revolutions, as protestors these mediums to organize and gain worldwide support (Abdel Salam). 

The next events necessary to understand the current refugee crisis involves Syria's ongoing civil war. Beginning with the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, the arrest and torture of teenagers after they painted revolutionary graffiti on their school kick started protests in March of 2011 (Kurzgesagt). Government forces opened fire on protestors as demonstrations gained strength, leading to calls for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad (BBC). Syria's government responded with overwhelming lethal force; this lead to growing conviction within the protests and increased international support: by July of 2011, hundreds of thousands of protestors demonstrated across the nation, eventually taking up arms to defend themselves against government and security forces (BBC). Once protestors took up arms, fully-blown civil war erupted. Rebels formed brigades and worked together to expel the government city by city and town by town, reaching the capital of Damascus by 2012 (BBC). In August of 2013, chemical weapons were used on multiple suburbs surrounding Damascus, drawing massive international pressure on President Assad, who backed down and removed the use of chemical weapons after the threat of US military intervention was leveled against his government (BBC). The United Nations has evidence of war crimes committed by all sides involved in the conflict, such as the "systematic and repeated" use of chlorine in lethal attacks on rebels found by UN investigators, and as a result the UN has called for the end of indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas -- this involves carpet bombs and drone strikes, not just chemical weapons (BBC). Further evidence of crimes against humanity and the coinciding accusation of war crimes cite over 55,000 authenticated photographs of political prisoners being tortured by Assad's regime, although Assad's regime is far from the only party involved in these crimes (Sprusansky). It has also been suggested the ISIS has utilized mustard gas in attacks on civilians, including an attack that killed an infant in the northern town of Marea in August of 2015 along with multiple authenticated barbaric, inhumane acts committed by ISIS such as live beheading, live execution with fire, and genocide (Dale; BBC). Between armed conflict, acts of terrorism, and crimes against humanity, by 2013 casualty estimates numbered at 90,000, and by 2015, 250,000 (BBC). Since the Syrian Civil War's beginning, its purpose has shifted direction: instead of a struggle for a legitimate, autonomous nation founded by its people, the focus has become a struggle between ethno-sectarian forces vying for absolute control (Lawson). Unfortunately, multiple attempts at peaceful diplomatic resolutions have failed up to this point (Lawson).

The Arab Spring also saw rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (the Levant), or ISIS (Gulmohamad). The group traces its roots to the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and the name ISI -- the Islamic State of Iraq -- was dubbed by the group's new leader, the Egyptian Abu Ayyoub al-Masri after Zarqawi was killed by US forces in 2006 (Gulmohamad). Taking from AQI's success in the region, ISI built on previous existing connections and in 2010 their headquarters were established in Baquba, Iraq (Gulmohamad). After Masri's death in 2013 -- which was also brought about by US forces -- Iraq's Abu-Baker al-Baghdadi was announced as ISI's new leader, and Baghdadi renamed ISI the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS or ISIL, both are interchangeable) (Gulmohamad). ISIS cannot be categorized as a standard jihadist group -- their aim differs on key aspects along with the methods used to achieve these goals, and as such they regularly clash with existing extremist groups throughout the region (Gulmohamad). Despite the fact that ISIS was born of a branch of al-Qaida, the organization continually defies Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaida -- members of ISIS pledge allegiance to Baghdadi in their nasheed, or song of faith, and not Zawahiri: this further illustrates their split from and outright defiance of other extremist groups (Gulmohamad). 

A third very powerful organization in the region, especially Syria, is Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN), an organization with ironically similar roots and goals when compared to ISIS (Gulmohamad). JN's ideology and their treatment of locals differs from that of ISIS, and their leader, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, is a Syrian national (Gulmohamad). Julani joined AQI during Zarqawi's leadership of the group and actually operated alongside Baghdadi (Gulmohamad). After Zarqawi's death, Julani left Iraq to assist with extremist operations for a short time in Lebanon under al-Qaida affiliate Jund al-Sham, but was captured and imprisoned by US forces during his return to Iraq (Gulmohamad). Upon release, Julani continued militant activity throughout the region until the Syrian Revolution began gaining momentum, at which point he traveled to Syria and founded JN with the support of Baghdadi (Gulmohamad). Despite their very similar origins, JN and ISIS are now at war with increasingly significant differences: since its founding, JN has allied itself with Syrian rebel groups and the Syrian Revolutionary Front (a conglomeration of seven Islamic extremist groups: Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Islam, Suqour al-Sham, Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Sham and the Kurdish Islamic Front), operates on a seemingly Syrian-focused basis, and continues to maintain ties with its al-Qaida roots (Gulmohamad). ISIS has no allies, engages in extremely antagonistic behavior, and is mostly comprised of foreign agents whereas some analysts have described JN as being a "home grown" organization (Gulmohamad). JN and the SRF are operating on multiple fronts, fighting Assad's forces as well as ISIS, yet are succeeding in pushing back ISIS and the forces of Syria's government (Lawson). 

The source of funding for ISIS is unclear, but is believed to originate from several sources including arms trafficking, black market activity, pirating oil from controlled fields in northern Syria, and the coercive extortion of civilian populations -- funds garnered from the extortion of civilian populations alone is estimated to be around $8,000,000USD (Gulmohamad). ISIS is believed to have committed the three most significant types of international crime: war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide (CBS). They operate by destroying anything and everything that opposes their views or conflicts with Sharia Law, annihilating minority groups and dissenters in any territory they control, going so far as to terrorize other extremist cells and carrying out genocidal offensive campaigns on local populations, occasionally offering forced religious conversion in lieu of torture or death (Lawson). This heavy-fisted brutality is wreaking havoc on their popularity and serves to recruit against their cause, fueling their downfall -- fighters once committed to ISIS now fight to remove its suffocating presence from Syria and Iraq, but ISIS is far from becoming a diminished threat or nonfactor in the region (Gulmohamad).

International policy concerning turbulence in the Middle East has been a point of pride for very few nations. Remnants of botched foreign policies dating to the cold war still haunt the region, manifesting themselves in factions continuing operations to this day and through near-unceasing conflict; old alliances -- visible in relations between the US and Israel -- still stand and continue to exacerbate relations between insatiable extremist groups and the westernized world. As worldwide policy currently stands, it seems as if world powers are reluctant to get truly involved. This isn't without reason: attempts to intervene in the affairs of Middle Eastern nations haven't ended well historically -- take, for example, US involvement in the removal of Saddam Hussein from power and consequential search for weapons of mass destruction. After invading Iraq on 20 March 2003, US forces captured the capital of Baghdad and toppled Hussein in a mere 20 days, "freeing" the state from the rule of the Baath party on 9 April 2003 (NY Times). The resulting political instability allowed Islamic extremists to take hold of the vulnerable nation, re-oppressing its citizens before they could establish a legitimate government of their own design capable of autonomous rule: consequential power struggles and attempts to quell the fighting locked US forces in the region for nearly a decade before an executive order brought an official end to US military involvement in Iraq despite remaining instability, hostility, uncertainty, and conditions generally unfit for civilian life (NY Times). The issues and circumstances leading up to, surrounding, and following the Iraq war and other wars throughout the region's history are far more complex than the scope this this paper allows, but this limited account of US-Iraq interactions and policies throughout the early 2000's through the early 2010's serves to illustrate the precarious nature of the region and the risks incurred when interfering with its affairs. In Syria, international forces have played small roles in the conflict but have largely kept away. Russia has undergone its first military campaign outside its of borders in nearly 30 years with its areal involvement in Syria, reawakening cold war tensions with the US as Vladimir Putin strategically maneuvers his military across the globe, probing soft spots in the US's global defenses, stopping just short of a flat-out challenge (Thompson). The US Air Force and Russian air force routinely avoid one another; if one nation is operating in the skies the other gives a wide berth or stays grounded all together (Thompson). Furthering tensions, Russia is feeding arms to Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and requests for attack helicopters, artillery and various other armaments by Afghanistan to Russia have resulted in a slowdown of US troop removal from Afghanistan (Thompson). Overarching tensions such as these serve to further complicate potential international intervention in Syria, and just as with the cold war, extensive involvement on either side carries the risk of much larger, more widespread warfare. 

Caught in the middle of this incredibly volatile and turbulent state of affairs are the people of Syria. Their communities have been decimated by a half decade of civil war, their homes rendered unsafe, and their futures made dangerously uncertain. Facing forced religious conversion, torture, rape, or death, families have gathered what belongings they can carry and have fled their homeland as refugees. Unfortunately, the challenges they face after leaving their homes present them with futures just as uncertain as those they faced at home. Presented with the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, Europeans have responded in ways alarmingly similar to those utilized in the Holocaust (Lyman). Once migrants reach Hungary they are surrounded by armed police officers who trick the migrants aboard a train to be brought to a "reception camp" (Lyman). Something particularly surprising is the lack of coverage within western states of these atrocities: mainstream news networks have hardly, if at all, distributed images of screaming children huddled among their crying families, whose outstretched arms extend from a train cars packed inhumanely full as they ride towards a camp enclosed in razor wire with posted armed guards in watch towers and at entrances (Lyman). Bringing the comparison even closer to the Holocaust still is the systematic labeling of refugees with serial numbers on their hands as they enter reception camps in the Czech Republic, an action actively being protested by humanitarian and Semitic groups whom draw stark yet accurate comparisons of the situation to that of Holocaust-era concentration camps (Lyman). This claim can be summarized by a quote from the chief rabbi of Hungary, Robert Frolich: "It was horrifying when I saw those images of police putting numbers on people's arms. It reminded me of Auschwitz. And then putting them on a train with armed guards to take them to a camp where they are closed in? Of course that echoes the Holocaust." Frolich went on to describe one of the lies used to trick migrants on to the train: "They [Hungarian authorities] tell them that the train was going to Austria ...  then take them to a camp instead." Besides inhumane transport and accommodations for refugees, the Hungarian government is currently debating legislation to create "transit zones" along their border for the containment and mass transit of refugees along with other legislation to immediately deport an immigrant if they are deemed to have travelled through a "safe" country on their route to Hungary (Lyman).

It is important when comparing the actions of overwhelmed European nations to the Holocaust to remember that this massive migration is not and will not become a genocide; any comparisons to the holocaust made beyond the logistical transport and accommodation of refugees are logical fallacies and weak attempts to portray temporary solutions to a complex issue as far more sinister and inhumane than they are. Simple analysis actually results in a veritable "reverse Holocaust." Migrants are fleeing arguable certain death and genocide; in this light, the inhumane conditions they are faced with are an escape from death and a chance to begin anew. Humanitarians throughout Europe have recognized the numbering of migrants as an attempt to create some form of order within camps or on trains and not as a call to a very dark part of Europe's past, yet the comparison still stands and holds merit. Modern, westernized nations undoubtedly have the collective resources to provide humane transport and temporary accommodation for refugees as they seek asylum, making the current conditions refugees are faced with unacceptable.

Refugees currently arrive in Hungary at a rate of 3,000 people per day, resulting in a staggering 21,000 people per week, and every single refugee out of 21,000 must be accounted for by Hungary without any assistance from other nations (Lyman). When presented with the sheer numbers and demographics of the refugees, it becomes immediately apparent that urgent, widespread action is required -- 13.5 million people are in need of assistance, and over half are children: in total, there are 6.75 misplaced children (World Vision). These children are classified as at-risk -- susceptible to malnutrition, currently do and for the foreseeable future will continue to miss education vital to their development, recruitment for child labor, and the very real threat of sexual assault, especially with teenage females (World Vision). In a psychological observational study conducted over a period of two months, 73 individuals were studied while living in a refugee camp (Basheti). With a mean age of 37.7, the sample accurately depicts the effects of living in a refugee camp on a refugee's mind: 63% of the sample lived in tents while the rest of the sample resided in caravans (Basheti). Of these mature adults, 56% believed themselves to be under psychological distress, 46% believed that psychological support and therapy is necessary for refugees, yet only 14.5% of those who believed they needed support and therapy received it (Basheti). Overall refugees living in tents reported a lower quality of life when compared to those living in caravans, with 31.6% lower satisfaction with the medical care provided to families living in tents and a 35.4% greater need for psychological support for those living in tents (Basheti). 4.6 million Syrian nationals have claimed refugee status overall, and another 6.6 million are displaced within Syria (World Vision). This rate of migration is beyond any one nation's ability to manage logistically or infrastructurally, and as such, the solution will require a unified global effort. An effort of the scale required to process and house such a large number of refugees not only requires the involvement of the United States, success depends on the US to set an example. After the Vietnam War the US relocated and provided asylum for the majority of some 1.3 million refugees displaced throughout Indochina, setting a precedent since forgotten (Kingsley). 

Reactions throughout the US concerning today's refugee crisis range from open-armed acceptance to absolute denial, resulting in heated debate (Collins). Resulting from these debates is House Resolution 4038: known as the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act, it directly addresses refugees from the Middle East (Congress). 4038 applies additional criterion for any "covered alien" applying for refugee admission to the US who is a national or resident of Iraq or Syria, has no nationality but whose last residence was within Iraq or Syria, or has been present in Iraq or Syria since 1 March 2011 (Congress). If passed, covered aliens would undergo additional background checks through the Federal Bureau of Investigation in addition to those already conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (Congress). For any covered alien to gain admittance under 4038, the FBI would have to certify to the DHS and to the Director of National Intelligence that the individual has passed a background check extensive enough to disprove any threat of terror activity posed by the individual; after a unanimous decision between all parties involved the DHS would need to certify the individual's benevolence to Congress (Congress). Finally, the SAFE act requires the DHS to deliver monthly reports to Congress on the total number of covered aliens admitted and the total number rejected during the preceding month, along with the concurrence or nonconcurrence of each necessary person involved in rejected applications (Congress). 4038 passed the House of Representatives without amendment on 19 November 2015, just two days after it was brought to the floor, and now awaits the Senate (Congress). 

Proponents of more accepting policies along with those opposed to H.R. 4038 argue their position on political, historical, and ethical fronts. They call upon the fact that the United States is a nation of immigrants, the earliest of which were fleeing persecution and injustice (Collins). Furthering their claim of historical precedents, opponents call upon the image of the United States as a sanctuary for those fleeing oppression or unfit living conditions: today's refugees have undergone both. Dissenters claim that the systems already in place for processing refugees are expansive enough, citing that of 23,000 applications for asylum, only 7,000 were interviewed and of those, only 2,000 admitted (Collins). Current processes pull information from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and from various intelligence agencies; every agency involved may veto any application at any time during this process (Collins). Honorable John Conyers, a US Representative for Michigan, asserts that 4038 provides no real additional security for the American people, rather, it places unreasonable entrance requirements on top of the most stringent standards for any person travelling to the United States (Collins). Conyers goes on to describe 4038 as a knee-jerk reaction fueled by fear and xenophobia, lacking in quality legislation without offering any true solution to the refugee crisis (Collins). Despite their objections, however, both the opposition for H.R. 4038 and those supporting it agree that radical Islamic terrorism poses a very serious threat to the safety of the American people, and that the potential for extremist penetration of refugee populations merits the utmost caution (Collins). 

Put simply, radical Islam represents the most sinister ideology present in today's world. Its laws and concepts justify the murder of innocent civilians, the eradication of women's rights, the genocide of multiple ethnic groups, and even war crimes -- radical Islam even sees no issue with indiscriminate massacring of school children if young girls attempt to receive an education (Lawson). It's a way of life frozen in the middle ages with no place in modern society, and as such, must not be tolerated.

Arguments for H.R. 4038 generally build off of the concept that radical Islam is evil and must be kept from the American homeland. During the debate of 4038, Honorable Doug Collins (US Representative, Georgia, R) laid out this argument with exceptional clarity: "Our Nation is a beacon of freedom and hope, and no force of evil will ever change that. No terrorist will ever cause Republicans in this body to shy away from our duty to our citizens or our duty to the world, and for that I believe both sides need to come together" (Collins). Collins continued on to assert that the US is a beacon of freedom throughout the world, and that refugees seek our shores because we do not tolerate terrorism and provide the utmost protection from foreign threats to those within our borders (Collins). Furthering his argument, he pointed out that there is no loophole or weak link in our national security that ISIS won't attempt to utilize in their stated mission to bring the US to her knees (Collins). H.R. 4038's aim isn't to keep refugees from reaching asylum, rather, it aims to build on the protection provided to those within US borders (Collins).

At the heart of H.R. 4038 is the determination to keep American citizens and those safeguarded by the US protected. Additional processes in the vetting process of refugees are designed to aid in the prevention of acts of terror committed on US soil, not to deny refugees asylum. The threat ISIS poses to civilian life must not be underestimated, and treating all refugees as if they pose no threat is just that: denial of the capability and willingness of ISIS to murder to further their own ends and the heinous brutality ISIS has so well demonstrated throughout their reign of terror in the Middle East. Extremist agents have and do utilize women and children in their perpetuation of Sharia Law and terror (Lyman). Therefore, demographic qualities do not constitute or refute the threat of terror posed by individuals from the Middle East, while contact with extremist organizations do constitute such threats. In this light, H.R. 4038 shines -- additional processes allow for greater confidence in the benevolence of those granted asylum while simultaneously making entrance to the US more difficult for extremist agents. 

Beginning with the Arab Spring of 2011, Syria has been locked in incredibly brutal civil war between Bashar al-Assad's government forces, multiple extremist organizations, and rebel groups. As a result, over 13.5 million people have been displaced, only to be greeted with discontent and inhumane conditions as they seek asylum in foreign nations. A driving force of this displacement are the operations of ISIS within the region, a group characterized by its sheer brutality and unwavering commitment to radical Islam and the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. The efforts of joint rebel and extremist organizations are succeeding in their mission to push back ISIS, but their fight is far from complete and has directly resulted in the displacement of more Syrian nationals. International intervention seems unlikely at this time due to historically failed attempts at intervention in the Middle East as well as overarching tensions between world powers. Since it would be logistically impossible for Europe alone to handle every refugee, a worldwide effort is needed. As a result, the United States must set an example for the rest of the world: welcoming and protecting refugees is of the utmost importance, but risks are involved with the provision of asylum. Processes designed to impede the perpetuation and extension of terror accomplish this through the admittance and protection of innocent people and through the rejection of those who intend violence on the innocent.

