FRAZIER: Syrian Refugee Resettlement: A safer, more humanitarian solution

Time and again, President Obama has underestimated the scope, reach, and determination of ISIS. From calling them a “Junior Varsity” terrorist organization or naively stating that they have been “contained” diminishes his credibility at home and abroad. The coordinated use of both barbaric means such as beheading innocent civilians and mass executions by firing squad to the sophisticated delivery of planting bombs and mobilizing terrorist cells across Europe and, possibly the U.S., via technology and social media requires a new, aggressive and open-eyed approach to destroying ISIS and cutting off its tentacles for propaganda, recruitment and invasion into the Western civilized world.

Our safety at home should come before politics. While the Syrian refugee crisis is a human rights dilemma, we must balance our hearts with our heads. ISIS has used the mass migration of Syrian refugees to infiltrate Europe and many national security experts note that our porous Southern border could pose a real danger to soft targets across this great nation- including here in Colorado where Governor Hickenlooper maintains he will accept Syrian refugees.

Where and how should America handle the Syrian refugees resettlement? The answer for these refugees is their home, where their hearts are. It does not have to divide us in Colorado or throughout America. We are a caring nation of people that that strive to make a better life for our families by working hard and playing by the rules. We are able to, at least in part, because of the relative peace and civility by which our society exists.

ISIS must be defeated and we must be unafraid to go on living our way of life. These Syrian refugees should also be able to go on living their lives.

My time in the U.S. Navy working national security and geo-political matters taught me many things; the U.S. is at its best when we lead from a position of strength and we bring the world together to solve international problems. America must unite the world community around a safe and humanitarian solution by allowing these displaced men, women, and children to stay in their home region through safe zones protected and supported by the world community.

We all should acknowledge that these refugees are living in unsafe and war torn environments. We also should acknowledge that there is no full proof way of screening those refugees that would be sent to Colorado for potential threats to our homeland. That aside, it does not make sense to pull these people away from the country they know and love, when all the world need do is create a safe environment for them closer to home. The world community has a moral responsibility to help make the region more secure for these families.

We must also remember that we have to take care of our own as well. Charity starts at home. According to 2014 U.S. Census Bureau, America’s poverty rate is 14.8%. Put in real numbers, nearly 47 million Americans live in poverty today, that’s up from 2007. Many of them are children and veterans. We must do better.

Mark Krikorian wrote in the National Review that “the Center for Immigration Studies … calculates that it costs twelve times as much to resettle a refugee in the United States as it does to care for the same refugee in a neighboring country in the Middle East.” He goes on to point out that for every refugee we would bring to the United States, there are eleven others that are not being helped with that money.

We can better help 12 times as many displaced Syrian refugee men, women, and children; closer to their own home, without the need to further risk our own security, and at a cost to our tax payers that gives us more bang for the buck. It is the safer, more humanitarian thing to do. Most importantly, it requires we lead the world community in doing it together.

Ryan Frazier is a former two-term Aurora city councilman. He recently announced he is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in 2016.