Despite Republican fear to the contrary, no Syrian refugees have been charged with any offenses related to ISIS-activity. Instead, the majority of those charged with ISIS-related crimes were born here in the United States.
As the Daily Beast reports:
Out of the 71 persons prosecuted by the U.S. government, only six were not U.S. citizens. Two-thirds of those charged were born in the U.S. and the rest are naturalized citizens.
It looks like the Republicans who are thumping their chests against allowing Syrian refugees into the country are really misplacing their energy.
According to the report from the Daily Beast, the most serious ISIS threat that came from a non-citizen came from Cuba – a country not usually considered a “Muslim” nation by conservative standards.
Again, the Daily Beast:
Miguel Morán Diaz, who was born in Cuba and resides in Florida, allegedly boasted to police about being a “lone wolf” terrorist and asked an FBI informant to buy him weapons. On a Facebook page, Diaz called himself Azizi al Hariri and posted ISIS propaganda and photos of himself with bombs. According to the FBI, he boasted to a confidential informant that he had a rifle with a callapsible stock that he could carry into public places.
“Diaz stated he would then take the .308 shell casings and scratch ISIS into the casings,” the federal complain read. “Diaz stated that after killing people, authorities would find the ISIS-engraved shell casings and then know there was a sniper in town. Diaz continued to state that a sniper could disrupt a city for a week or two until being caught.”
But the fact that the evidence doesn’t support the conclusions Republicans are making won’t slow them down – even if that means ignoring actual threats. They continue to engage in a racist campaign against a proven non-threat while ignoring potentially dangerous realities.
For more on this, read the article from the Daily Beast titled: “Cubans and Bosnian Refugees Accused of Helping ISIS, But No Syrian Refugees.“
