Dear Next President,

Seeing as you’ve risen to the highest position in the country, I take it you’re familiar with the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Having been elected in 2005, she’s been in office over a decade, and I think the United States can learn from her mistakes. In the summer of 2015, she enacted an open-door policy for all migrants and asylum seekers, and many members of the European Union have either followed or begun taking in far more refugees. Thus, Middle Eastern migrants have been pouring into Germany and Europe with absolutely no vetting or identification, and the results have been disastrous. I hope that you take what I say consideration and avoid making the same mistake that the Germany has.

The flood of migrants has caused many issues, increase in rape and sexual assault being a notable example. In Cologne, Germany on New Year’s Eve, a horrific event took place: Gareth Davies of Daily Mail reported that “a staggering 1,200 were sexually abused in German cities during New Year's Eve celebrations.” This clearly premeditated event was perpetrated by migrants, and hardly any of them have faced justice after the fact. Similar nights have been reported since, albeit not on that scale. The rapes aren’t confined to Germany, however, by any means. Lizzie Dearden, working with Independent, reported that “An Iraqi refugee who raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Austria has been jailed for a minimum of six years.” The man’s only explanation was that he was having a “sexual emergency.” Notable events aside, rape statistics have increased dramatically in Germany ever since Merkel enacted her open door policy. These rapes arise from the Muslim, more specifically migrant, population.

However, rape is not the only crime to increase in Germany since the policy’s enactment. All sorts of crime has gone up massively. Michelle Martin, an associate of Reuters has reported “Migrants in Germany committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016” alone. Most of these crimes, however, go without justice. There are two reasons for this: fear, and the lack of ability to. To acknowledge these crimes brings swift excommunication from the public for a German citizen as they’d be accused of hate speech, racism, Islamophobia - you name it. Police and media are far lighter on these migrants because of social pressure and a little prodding from the German government. The other major problem is that the German people have no clue who these people are - they were all allowed to pour into Germany with no forms, no identification, nothing. These migrants are a mass of unidentifiable individuals, making it rather difficult to find and prosecute them, so they don’t.

The next, and arguably most impacting change the migrants bring is a relatively massive increase in Islamic terrorism. This issue, like the last two, spans across the EU - specifically France. The attack on Bastille Day in Nice was particularly devastating - even more so when you consider the occasion. National Post states that a migrant “drove a truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding 202 others,” The driver, reported as screaming “Allahu Akbar,” was shot dead. For France, that’s not nearly the end of the attacks they’ve suffered in recent history. You had the Charlie Hebdo shooting - the massacre of a newspaper outlet - and the Paris attacks a year ago. The casualties from the Paris attacks were record breaking, killing over 130 people and wounding many. This wave of attacks coincides with the EU’s massive intake of migrants, and shows no sign of slowing down.

But why would this group of people show such severe behavior in relation to others? Many would argue that most of these migrants are peaceful and can live in our society harmoniously - they would be wrong. Evidence shows that the vast majority of migrants coming in from the Middle East are unable to adapt and conform to the west. Take these statistics from Pew Poll research on the whole of Muslim population: out of the 1.62 billion Muslims in the world, 1.1 billion believe that Sharia Law should rule. Sharia Law entails that those who abandon Islam, speak out against it, and homosexuals all must be executed. It holds these values and many more that would shock any holder of progressive or western values. The number of those that have these beliefs is frightening, to be sure, but what you must keep in mind is that the percentage of those who think this way is exponentially larger in the Middle East and North Africa than it is in the west - 91% do in Iraq, for example. All but a small minority of Middle Eastern residents are compatible with and can conform to western values, those being the values of freedom, democracy, equality - the things that characterize us from the rest of the world. And yes, not every Middle Easterner holds these beliefs, but a group is defined by its majority, and this is a regressive and hateful majority.

For these reasons I ask you to halt migration from the Middle East. I’m not insinuating that all Muslims are violent, dogmatic and anti-west, of course - but Middle Eastern ones, by the vast majority, are. These people simply do not get along with us, and all the evidence you need is right across the pond. Europe is facing many problems today, and we will have to wait and see if they can dig themselves out of their hole. Some countries are coming to realize what’s happened and what must be done - it was one of many reasons the Brexit vote went through. The United States, however, doesn’t need to be put in that position. I ask that you don’t make the same mistakes as Chancellor Merkel and the rest of the EU, and turn away all migrants from the Middle East if not heavily vet anyone who wants to come through from there - make sure they can be a productive member of society. I ask this out of concern for my country, and I hope you share that concern.

Sincerely,

Matt Norman

10th Grade

West St Paul

Minnesota