We asked all 22 presidential candidates to define a US refugee policy. Few had clear answers
Refugees: The Guardian pressed every contender for the White House on how they would confront shocking realities from abroad. In the midst of a campaign charged by immigration, just two called for taking on more refugees
It was an image that shocked the conscience of the world: the lifeless body of a Syrian toddler, washed ashore on a Turkish beach.
The drowning of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi has become emblematic of the refugee crisis and the plight of the hundreds of thousands of people who have loaded into boats just this year to risk the dangerous journey to Europe, seeking primarily to escape conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
As Europe struggles to host the millions of refugees who have fled war-torn Syria in particular, the image of Kurdi has posed a fundamental question to America: should the US open its borders to more?
Last week, the Guardian contacted the campaigns of every candidate for the White House – 17 Republicans and five Democrats – to ask two questions. Should the US be accepting more refugees? And, as president, how would each candidate define US policy toward those seeking asylum from war-torn and impoverished countries?
But even as presidential candidates offer foreign policy pitches through a lens of moral leadership, just one of 22 contenders – former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley – said unequivocally that the US should take in more refugees and put forward a specific number. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Democrat called on the government to accept 65,000 refugees from Syria over the next year.
“If Germany – a country with one-fourth our population – can accept 800,000 refugees this year, certainly we – the nation of immigrants and refugees – can do more,” O’Malley said in a statement.
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, a Republican, suggested on Sunday that no additional refugees should be taken in until the US contends with the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Several campaigns, including those of top contenders such as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her closest challenger, Bernie Sanders, and Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the specific question of whether the US should accept more refugees.
But even Trump, the GOP frontrunner who has positioned himself as the face of the conservative movement against illegal immigration, said the US should “possibly” accept more refugees. “The answer is possibly yes, possibly yes,” Trump told MSNBC last week. “So horrible on a humanitarian basis when you see that. It’s incredible what’s going on.”
Other Republicans have raised national security concerns over opening up the US to more refugees. On Sunday, Carly Fiorina said the US cannot relax its criteria for letting refugees in and warned against those who might be affiliated with terrorist activity.
“We are having to be very careful about who we let enter this country from these war-torn regions to ensure that terrorists are not coming here.”- Read More at theGuardian
We asked all 22 presidential candidates to define a US refugee policy. Few had clear answers
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