Dear Future President,

I am writing this because I believe in order to still be called America and to uphold the values that made this country, we must allow more immigrants inside our country. I for one, would love to meet refugees and welcome them to my country and state. Although some people consider this risk to be big, I believe the it is worth it for the betterment of our country, and here is why.

In America, we have accepted ten thousand refugees at the end of September this year, and according to CNN, only 2 have been arrested because of terrorist activity. And if that felt like a small amount of terrorists compared to refugees, then this will dwarf that. All the way back from 9/11 to the present day, out of 784,000 plus immigrants and refugees that came to America, only 3 have been arrested for terrorist activity and that is including the 2 Syrian refugee terrorists. This is ridiculously small and if this is the amount of terrorists that come to our country, don’t you think it’s worth the risk for the betterment of others lives? We have a bigger threat from people within our own borders who have lived here for a long time than refugees and immigrants. In 2015 alone, 180 American citizens have left to join Terrorist organizations in the middle east and that is including 8 people from the city I was born in which is Minneapolis. 180 terrorist from within our own borders, and 3 from outside.

Here is a solution, instead of trying to up the security to prevent terrorists coming in (ultimately discouraging Syrians to come here), we lessen the security of refugees coming into America and let more come in and let more come in. We then have stricter laws on terrorist activity to deal with terrorists trying to leave our country to join terrorist organizations and fight against us and terrorist activity within our own country. I believe this will help us in the long run with refugees and help America achieve an even more diverse population.

If we want to still be the America that we’re supposed to be, we have to let more immigrants in. We are the melting pot of the world, the only reason America is here is because of immigrants and refugees. There are few opportunities to show what America is truly about with all of the war we’ve had, and this is one of those times we show that the American spirit lives on. They are definitely worth the risk, and even on a plaque below the statue of liberty, it says "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!". This is what makes America the America we know and we should keep a good image.

Sincerely,

DeAngelo Thomas