Recently a Bill was shot down by Democrats that would have curbed the amount of Syrian and Iraqi refugees let into The United States. Highly Supported by the Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan had this to say about the situation, "By blocking this measure, Senate Democrats are making it that much harder for us to keep Americans safe, their vote is irresponsible in a time of grave threats. Even the administration's top law enforcement officials say there are gaps in our refugee program that terrorists can exploit." Republicans are bringing to light a growing concern in Americans as the threat of an attack on U.S. soil from terrorist groups rise. The main group is the Islamic-State; many citizens are beginning to worry about their safety at big public events. At the recent Super Bowl events in held San Francisco, California there was a great presence of security ranging from city-policeman, bomb squad, undercover officers, Homeland-Security, and even military snipers on top of tall buildings. Seems like the Syrian Refugee Bill was not as extreme as many Democrats try to preach. When traveling to a big public event we as citizens should not be worrying about the chances that there maybe a terrorist attack. A recent survey conducted by in December by the Pew Research Center showed considerable rise in Voters' concerns regarding terrorism and a dramatic plummet in their confidence with the government's ability to defeat terrorist groups like IS.

Democrat try to push the view that "This bill is just another step in the absolute wrong direction, the direction of Donald Trump." Talking about his recent push for a Muslim ban in the U.S., the Syrian Refugee bill proposed had no traces of religious views causing any specification on which refugees would be looked at. It was drawn up to look at any refugee coming from that area, since majority of the terrorist organizations that are hell bent on trying to harm America(ns) in any way they can. Relating it to Trumps Muslim ban was a media stunt to help gain support from citizens who do not take the time to look into the details of a controversial situation such as this. The Background checks of each refugee coming into the States would be more thorough to ensure that the individual is not a threat in disguise. Would an emphasis on Muslim refugees background checks be such a bad thing for the U.S.? Most, if not all terrorist groups that pose a threat to our country are extremist Muslims and come from the Middle Eastern area. Does the government not owe it to its people to take the necessary precautions to ensure their safety first?

It is we citizens that get harmed if they do not, the Boston Marathon Bombings were executed by extremists Muslims. The stereotype that has been formed over the last fifteen to twenty years is very unfortunate, the majority of Islam followers are just like everyone else. The Terrorist groups are making a bad name for those good people and it is effecting many lives of innocent refugees. 

Many of the States in the U.S. are split whether they will accept Syrian Civil War refugees, one state in particular is accepting many of the refugees. Maryland, Specifically the City of Baltimore has accepted many families with open arms.  Mayor Rawlings-Blake has expressed that over the next ten years she wants to increase the number of families from war-torn countries by ten-thousand. "Despite what we've witnessed in Paris, my passionate support for welcoming new Americans to Baltimore remains unwavering" said the mayor. The city's population had been steadily decreasing since the 1950s and the mayor wants to change that by bringing in new faces to the area, growing the culture. 

Outlining Research Project:

I am interested in this topic because it is a very prominent issue going on in today's society. I also did a research paper on the Syrian Civil War back in high school and I was very intrigued in the matter. This project tests my views and helps me sharped what I believe, growing my own opinion than one my parents may have influenced. I personally have encountered both sides of the controversy, people who are against accepting refugees and citizens who say bring as many over as we can handle. I feel like I am qualified to write on this topic because I have some prior knowledge of the conflict going on in Syria.



The central claim of this article is to inform the reader of the outcome of a major vote in the U.S. Senate. The source uses statistic evidence and many quotes from different Senators involved in the voting. The safety of American citizens is a major interest in this article as it talks of the dangers if a terrorist slips through the refugee program and gains access to the U.S. Being posted on CNN makes this article very credible as it is a powerhouse news channel that is watched all over the U.S. Showing a little bias more Republicans where quoted in this article than democrats.

The main point for this article is to inform the reader of the outcome of the Syrian Refugee Bill that was voted on a few weeks back. This article goes into more detail about the bill and what it entails for the refugees. Challenging the readers views it adds how the Democrats and Republicans viewed the bill giving the reader two views to consider when coming up with their own opinion. This article seems to be more neutral as it has more of an equal distribution of views. I found this article of the U.S. News & World Report website.

Describing the journey of one refugee family this article goes into detail about what refugees go through to gain asylum in the U.S. It brings to light some of the upsides and downsides to the whole process ranging from some states not accepting any refugees to other holding their arms wide open. It also talks about the split in opinion between many Americans and views on the Syrian Refugees. I found this article on the ABC News website. Bias in this article supports accepting the refugees from war-torn Middle Eastern countries.

Reflection:

My research question is one of the biggest topics being debated in today's society. It has many different views and is very controversial with many people. All articles never said that they agreed with cutting off all access to the U.S. to Syrian refugees, they all just had different levels of difficulty in getting to the States. The different perspectives of each source gives me many different views to consider and form my argument for the research project. I will probably need to organize it better and edit it to make sure nothing is worded incorrectly because it is very easy to offend people with this topic.
