I’m responding to a Feb. 9 letter by Marilyn Wear in which she proposes that the vetting of refugees needs to be more extreme.
I don’t believe that many know that the process is already very thorough. Every single refugee is interviewed by the United Nations first, their backgrounds are checked and then they might be referred to the U.S. for immigration. These selected few are then submitted to many rounds of security checks by our State Department, Homeland Security, Department of Defense and the FBI. We collect their names, biographies and fingerprints. The vetting process takes from 16 to 36 months.
Refugees from Syria also have their irises scanned to confirm identity and less than 1 percent are admitted. Of the more than 3 million refugees admitted since Sept. 11, 2001, none have carried out a fatal terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
We are a nation of immigrants. America cannot lose its soul.
Rose Rhoades
Spokane
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