 "Refugee problem in Syria raises fears in South Carolina")
The worried citizens gathered in the high school cafeteria, about 200 strong. Patriotic songs played on the stereo, a man in a blue blazer from the John Birch Society hovered by a well-stocked literature table, and Lauren L Martel, a lawyer from Hilton Head, told the crowd that 25 Syrian refugees were already living among them.
"The UN calls it 'refugee resettlement' - the Muslims call it hijra, migration," said another speaker, Jim McMillan, a local businessman. "They don't plan to assimilate, they don't plan to take on our culture. They plan to change American life."
The United States government has pledged to increase the number of worldwide refugees allowed in the country each year from 70,000 to 100,000 by the year 2017; earlier this month, the Obama administration said it would take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. But the anger and anxiety here show just how hard this might be in some parts of the country.
None of Syria's four million refugees have been resettled in this part of South Carolina in the last year, according to the State Department. Since May, a Christian nonprofit group, World Relief, has placed 32 refugees in the region, but most of them were Christians fleeing troubled countries like Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Even so, in South Carolina's Upstate region, as its conservative northwest corner is known, the crisis has divided those who want to welcome new waves of huddled masses from those who question the federal government's ability to weed out Muslim extremists. Some critics, echoing concerns in towns across the country, fear the newcomers will burden local government agencies or alter the character of their communities.
The criticism here has encompassed both sober-minded questions about local school funding and warnings about global conspiracies. It began this spring when the Baltimore-based World Relief, one of nine nonprofit agencies that work with the federal government to resettle refugees, prepared to open its new office in Spartanburg, a city of 37,000 close to a BMW auto plant.
Lynn Isler, a stay-at-home mother, was among those who pushed back. She created a short-lived Facebook page that warned of the "perfect storm that the Syrian refugees will bring." She has also warned that Communists had infiltrated some elements of the Christian Evangelical movement that supports refugee resettlement.
Elected officials have weighed in as well. Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican whose district is part of the Upstate region and who leads the House select committee investigating the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has complained that the federal government did not sufficiently coordinate with local officials before allowing the current crop of refugees to arrive.
State Senator Lee Bright, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg Counties, has called for "open hearings" on the resettlement effort, echoing the concerns of some fellow Republicans who say it is difficult to perform background checks on Syrian refugees, given the chaos that has engulfed their country. Many critics point to the congressional testimony of Michael Steinbach, assistant director of counterterrorism for the FBI, who told a House committee in February that Syria lacked systems that could provide information to evaluate refugees.
At the meeting in the cafeteria at James F Byrnes High School in Duncan, a small city near Spartanburg, State Representative Mike Burns, a Republican from Greenville County, spoke more broadly of immigration policies that were threatening traditional American culture.
"This immigration fiasco that we're in the middle of is going to take away the very things that we're dear about," Burns said.
During a question-and-answer session, a woman asked if the refugees could be sent home on "troop ships." A man asked if they could be sent on a plane to Saudi Arabia. When he was told that they could not, his frustration mounted. "Do we shoot them?" he asked, to laughter and applause. "Come on! I mean, this is crazy."
"The UN calls it 'refugee resettlement' - the Muslims call it hijra, migration," said another speaker, Jim McMillan, a local businessman. "They don't plan to assimilate, they don't plan to take on our culture. They plan to change American life."
The United States government has pledged to increase the number of worldwide refugees allowed in the country each year from 70,000 to 100,000 by the year 2017; earlier this month, the Obama administration said it would take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. But the anger and anxiety here show just how hard this might be in some parts of the country.
None of Syria's four million refugees have been resettled in this part of South Carolina in the last year, according to the State Department. Since May, a Christian nonprofit group, World Relief, has placed 32 refugees in the region, but most of them were Christians fleeing troubled countries like Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Even so, in South Carolina's Upstate region, as its conservative northwest corner is known, the crisis has divided those who want to welcome new waves of huddled masses from those who question the federal government's ability to weed out Muslim extremists. Some critics, echoing concerns in towns across the country, fear the newcomers will burden local government agencies or alter the character of their communities.
The criticism here has encompassed both sober-minded questions about local school funding and warnings about global conspiracies. It began this spring when the Baltimore-based World Relief, one of nine nonprofit agencies that work with the federal government to resettle refugees, prepared to open its new office in Spartanburg, a city of 37,000 close to a BMW auto plant.
Lynn Isler, a stay-at-home mother, was among those who pushed back. She created a short-lived Facebook page that warned of the "perfect storm that the Syrian refugees will bring." She has also warned that Communists had infiltrated some elements of the Christian Evangelical movement that supports refugee resettlement.
Elected officials have weighed in as well. Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican whose district is part of the Upstate region and who leads the House select committee investigating the attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has complained that the federal government did not sufficiently coordinate with local officials before allowing the current crop of refugees to arrive.
State Senator Lee Bright, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg Counties, has called for "open hearings" on the resettlement effort, echoing the concerns of some fellow Republicans who say it is difficult to perform background checks on Syrian refugees, given the chaos that has engulfed their country. Many critics point to the congressional testimony of Michael Steinbach, assistant director of counterterrorism for the FBI, who told a House committee in February that Syria lacked systems that could provide information to evaluate refugees.
At the meeting in the cafeteria at James F Byrnes High School in Duncan, a small city near Spartanburg, State Representative Mike Burns, a Republican from Greenville County, spoke more broadly of immigration policies that were threatening traditional American culture.
"This immigration fiasco that we're in the middle of is going to take away the very things that we're dear about," Burns said.
During a question-and-answer session, a woman asked if the refugees could be sent home on "troop ships." A man asked if they could be sent on a plane to Saudi Arabia. When he was told that they could not, his frustration mounted. "Do we shoot them?" he asked, to laughter and applause. "Come on! I mean, this is crazy."
©2015The New York Times News Service