Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.New Yorker Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/senate-refugee-screening-bill-syria-iraq.html?_r=0
So legislation is a complicated body to process. Without
delving into the more convoluted aspects of the process I'll inform you that according to Jennifer Steinhauer of the New Yorker, the Senate
has blocked a bill passed by the House of Representatives that, "would
have required that the director of the F.B.I., the secretary of the Department
of Homeland Security and the director of national intelligence confirm that
each applicant from Syria and Iraq poses no threat, which the White House
denounced last year as 'untenable.' "
From the start the issue at hand is
clearly addressed, we live in a time in which the need to answer for refugee asylum is
a major concern of many countries, Germany, Australia and France included. Yet
the further we move into discussing what the separate parties plan to do and how the
vote on this issue and that issue, the more confusing and quite frankly petty
the article becomes. The issue at hand is the blocking of a bill that would
place stricter screenings on refugees, the most probable purpose of the bill
being a concern of National Security. In part of the stricter bill, the mention
of a visa program that is undercut by the new bill adds to the want for
clarification.
"Under that new measure, with certain narrow
exceptions, the United States now bars residents of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sudan
and foreigners who have traveled to those countries since March 2011 from
participation in the program."
The aforementioned visa program allows
certain citizens of countries to enter the U.S without a visa for a period of
time, about 90 days and that seems practical and fair, there are other
requirements for the visa waiver program that go into better detail within the
article.
Now, I’m going to switch gears
slightly and discuss a small discovery I made accidentally in the past few days.
In discussing immigration and the issues faced by refugees now I happened upon
on a story in the midst of this world of moving people.
Her Story: https://www.youcaring.com/kamelliah-476495
Apparently a young women by the name of Kamelliah is seeking
asylum in the U.S from her abusive family in Saudi Arabia. I’ll allow you to
read more about her story and form your own opinions yourselves. However, in
reading her story I couldn’t help but realize how desensitized I was to issues
such as Kamelliah’s. She’s one asylum seeker in our society among thousands of
other refugees. Whether they're from Syria, Iraq or Sudan, there are people around the
world seeking to start their lives over, or to simply continue their lives safely.
The sheer amount and density is enough for a bystander to become desensitized
to the issues, but that doesn’t mean we should allow ourselves to become that.
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