November 4, 2016

Dear Mr. or Mrs. Future President,

As we are nearing the election, now is a very important time to find your stance on many political issues. From deforestation to terrorism to climate change, citizens of our country have many opinions on controversies and problems, but what about the people that don’t have a country to voice their opinions in or even call home? By the end of 2015, 65.3 million people had been displaced from their countries, and they need the United States’ help and support, as well as acceptance into our country. I encourage you to listen to my point of view on this issue.

One in every 113 people on Earth are refugees, and only 1% of them are accepted into the United States. That’s an extremely miniscule amount, especially since there are so many people that need help. If we made the allowance of refugees higher, even slightly, it would positively impact so many people’s lives. Refugees getting into a new country can, and does a lot of the time, save their lives.

Some people believe we shouldn't allow more refugees, or any at all, because they think terrorists will pose as refugees which would make us susceptible to terror attacks, but we have more of a threat from domestic terrorists, and somehow we don’t want to ban ourselves (even though 80% of terror attacks in the U.S. are committed by United States citizens). Only 0.00038% of refugees have been linked to terrorism, and even less have actually committed a terror attack. Therefore, the fear of refugees being terrorists is irrational, unfounded and an overall bad reason to prevent people from finding a better life for themselves.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget these statistics are people, and we lose sight of how this really impacts someone. Picture this: a 67 year old man, Ahmed, fleeing his war-torn country on a boat. Shortly after the boat left, it sank killing three dozen people, 8 of which were in Ahmed’s family. After surviving, he was given an opportunity to board a boat for $3,000 USD. He paid the money and got on the boat, but militiamen tried to force the boat back to Libya; when they failed, they shot at the defenseless refugees and sunk the boat. Unfortunately, this isn’t an uncommon story among refugees. Success stories are very low because refugees work so hard to get to a better life and sometimes don’t even get away from their countries.They need a place to go if and when they finally make it.

It would help so many people in need, improve so many lives and give people another chance at a good life if we would just accept more refugees into our country. I call you now to choose your side of this problem, and I hope you will select the one that saves lives.

With Respect,

Addison Wheatley