Many people believe that it’s time to start refusing refugees from Syria and Iraq, as we are incapable of determining if terrorists are hiding among them. But another group of immigrants poses a serious security threat that is going ignored: Somalis.
Somalia has been partially overrun by Al-Shabaab, an organization that shares ISIS’s radical views, goals, and strategies. It frequently publishes videos and photos of executions of “unbelievers” or people suspected of working for the Somali authorities.
According to Refugee Resettlement Watch, a total of 100,000 Somali refugees have come to the United States in recent years — 8,858 of them in 2015 alone. Since October 1 of this year, 827 refugees have been added to that amount. The Somalis are generally resettled in Minnesota, Arizona, New York, Ohio, and Texas.
There appears to be as much risk of importing Muslim fanatics pretending to be refugees from Somalia as from Syria. Worse yet, the risk may be greater:
More Somali former refugees have left the U.S. to fight with Al-Shabaab and ISIS than any other ethnic group.
In April, Breitbart reported that six Somali “refugees” were arrested because they wanted to join ISIS. That wasn’t the first time Somali-Americans tried to do so:
Authorities say a handful of Minnesota residents have traveled to Syria to fight with militants within the last year. At least one Minnesotan has died while fighting for the Islamic State.Since 2007, more than 22 young Somali men have also traveled from Minnesota to Somalia to join the terrorist group al-Shabaab.
In October of this year, even NPR had to admit that many “marginalized, young Somalis look East to join ISIS.” A Somali-American councilman in the Twin Cities explained:
I don’t know any of the young men, but I do know some of their family members. You know, it’s a shock to the community. And we’ve had this issue of recruitment back in 2006 when young Somali men left Minnesota for the first time and joined the Al-Shabaab movement.
He then said that they joined Al-Shabaab for “nationalistic” reasons, but that’s nonsense. Nationalist Somalis can work for the internationally recognized Somali government. These people joined Al-Shabaab because they’re Muslim extremists. They are now moving towards ISIS because that organization is bigger, badder, more notorious, and more powerful. That’s the only thing that has changed.
That’s not the only threat these “refugees” pose. If they are willing to join ISIS overseas, they’re probably willing to carry out terrorist attacks for that organization in the United States itself. They’ll go wherever ISIS needs them.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to import Somalis without being able to vet them. Even Speaker Paul Ryan seems to be unaware — or uncaring — about the security threat Somali “refugees” pose: in his new immigration bill, he only demands that the government certify that refugees from Syria and Iraq are not terrorists.
Why are immigrants from Somalia not included in that list? Considering past arrests, it makes no sense to exclude them from the vetting process.
Washington had better get serious about protecting the homeland and vetting allMuslim refugees, especially those from Syria, Iraq, and Somalia. If they don’t, it could very well be that the next terror attack in the United States is carried out by a member of this population.
