Over 60 Refugees Who Came To U.S. Took Part in Terror Plots, New Report Reveals
At least 61 refugees who came to the United States from 2002 to 2016 took part in terror activities on U.S. soil that were meant to kill and injure people, the Heritage Foundation revealed in a new report.
The report by the U.S. conservative think tank is expected to further bolster U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban policy to certain countries.
The Heritage Foundation tagged dozens of refugees who came to the United States and who were found to have lied to authorities on ongoing terror plots or personally taken part in terror plots themselves, CBN News reported.
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The report also uncovered a serious problem: None of the security mechanisms employed by the U.S. has effectively prevented the so-called "1.5 generation"—individuals who immigrate to the country before or during their early teens—from turning into radicals after they have already found refuge in the country.
Compared to other refugees in the past, this 1.5 generation is unique since they do not give up the cultural values and characteristics of their home country upon resettling in the United States, the report states, adding that this makes their radicalization easier.
John Cooper, a spokesman for the Heritage Foundation, says this poses a new problem to the U.S. "Given the threat that we found in the 1.5 generation, more needs to be done in the U.S. assimilation process," he told Fox News. "We can't vet an 8-year-old to see if he will become a terrorist when he turns 18 or 28. Instead, we as a country need to rethink the way we assimilate refugees, and immigrants as a whole for that matter."
He says the terrorism that's gripping Europe "paints a disturbing picture of where non-assimilation leads."
The Heritage Foundation says one way of preventing future terror attacks in the U.S. are long-term programs that help refugees assimilate to the American culture more effectively to prevent them from getting radicalized.
It says these programs should enable migrants to embrace the American creed, learn English and gain education, which will help them create and cherish "an American identity and sense of belonging."
The report says another solution is for the U.S. to pressure Arab countries to accept more refugees, so they need not have to go much farther to the West to find new homes.
"Many Syrian and Iraqi refugees share similar cultural and religious values with the people of the Gulf States, which have the financial capacity for resettlement," the report states. "Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have donated hundreds of millions of dollars each for relief efforts, but the U.S. should urge the Gulf States to increase their aid for their Arab Muslim neighbors by resettling Syrians with all the rights and protections due to refugees."
These Gulf States currently do not host refugees even though they are in the same region where the refugees come from.
