The Thanksgiving holiday break saw a shift in momentum on the Syrian refugee front, as many Americans’ attention was diverted by an act of domestic terrorism; a white male gunman shot up a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, killing three and wounding nine others before being taken into custody. But the fallout from the ISIS attacks was never far from view. President Obama held a press conference with French President Francois Hollande, inveighing against the politics of fear, pledging to cooperate in the drive to destroy the Islamic State and vowing to continue welcoming Syrian refugees. The president also warned governors critical of his resettlement plans that they did not have the authority to bar refugees, warning of possible fines. On Monday, the White House announced steps to strengthen the security of its Visa Waiver Program.

The Pentagon readied a new Special Forces task force in Iraq, stepping up its direct role in battling ISIS. An ominous new report found that the Islamic State had engaged in an “unprecedented” mobilization inside the U.S., reporting that there are 900 active probes against ISIS supporters in America. This seemed all but certain to be grist in the mill of Capitol Hill Republicans pushing to slow or stop the administration’s resettlement program.  Sen. Jeff Sessions has begun efforts to dramatize the notion that refugees can become jihadis, circulating a list he claims documents such cases as he moves to use the appropriations debates this month to curb Obama’s plans. The Intercept reported on a conference call among energy industry lobbyists strategizing about how to use the refugee crisis as cover to roll back unwanted clean water regulations. And the issue of how to handle refugees moved center stage in the Illinois Senate race, as incumbent Mark Kirk blasted Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s support for allowing Syrian resettlement. The U.S. Conference of Mayors sent an open letter to Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to “take no action that will jeopardize” America’s “rich and proud heritage” of welcoming and protecting those who come to the U.S. fleeing persecution.

GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson made headlines by traveling to Jordan and touring refugee camps, arguing that the best way to deal with Syrians fleeing civil war was to have other Middle Eastern countries step up their share of resettlements. This idea was undermined somewhat by news accounts quoting his own advisers as saying they struggled to get the candidate

to absorb foreign policy information. Other reports surfaced suggesting that Syrian refugees in the region were closely following the rhetoric of the U.S. presidential campaign. Meanwhile, a poll of Iowa Democrats showed an overwhelming majority favoring U.S. resettlement of Syrian refugees. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news-campaigns-homeland-security/261249-poll-iowa-dems-say-us-should-accept

 

Several news outlets ran strong pro-open society pieces seeking to rebut the notion that the refugees pose a serious security threat. A sampling:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/997ad3c6-9516-11e5-ac15-0f7f7945adba.html#axzz3snZvcIqB

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/world/asia/indonesia-islam-nahdlatul-ulama.html?src=me

http://www.cato.org/blog/syrian-refugees-dont-pose-serious-security-threat?

Competing for immigration reporters’ attention: a surge in new developments on other immigration fronts. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group, Fwd.us, launched a fresh effort, announcing plans to finance ads, polling, and research, target Republican candidates in key 2016 battleground states, and push back against inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric from presidential contenders.  And the Supreme Court ruled against the request from Texas and 26 other states to delay consideration of their challenge to Obama’s immigration executive actions, setting the stage for the justices to hear arguments in January and rule by next June.

Among grantee activities in recent days:

--Faith in Public Life trumpeted press coverage of the open letter, signed by 2,000 clergy members, sent to select governors urging them to welcome carefully screened refugees fleeing civil war. Highlights: Clergy Members Critical of Deal's Plan to Block Syrian Refugees
By WXIA-TV; Atlanta, Georgia

WI faith leaders call on Walker to reverse position on Syrian refugees

By WISC-TV; Madison, Wisconsin

Iowa Clergy Ask Branstad to Accept Syrian Refugees

By KCCI-TV; Des Moines, Iowa

Church leaders condemn Gov. Hogan's stance on refugees

By WMD-TV; Salisbury, Maryland

 

--Human Rights First, in conjunction with Crisis Action, helped organize an open letter from a bipartisan group of national security experts, opposing efforts to curtail Syrian refugee resettlements in the U.S.  Among the prominent signatories: former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Shultz and Madeleine Albright; former Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta, William Perry, William Cohen and Chuck Hagel; former National Security Advisers Zbig Brzezinski, Stephen Hadley, Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft, and Gen. David Petraeus.

--The Center for American Progress held a briefing entitled “Syria, Refugees, ISIS and a US Path Forward: A Conversation for Progressives.

--GCIR (Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees) announced a strategy session to discuss “philanthropy’s role in addressing the escalating and increasingly dangerous anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, and anti-Muslim fervor.” The meeting is set for Wednesday, Dec. 9 11-2PM at Unbound Philanthropy, 101 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1400. OSF invited.

 

--USP Board member Rosa Brooks published a piece in Foreign Policy arguing that terrorist threats already existed inside the US, and that they needed to be managed rather than defeated, warning that poorly planned Western responses could make things worse. She also pointed out that statistically speaking, the terrorist threat remains “relatively minor.” http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/20/the-threat-is-already-inside-uncomfortable-truths-terrorism-isis/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=Flashpoints

--America’s Voice redoubled efforts to call out Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-ethnic rhetoric, publicizing articles and editorials from around the country blasting the candidate’s tone. Their compilation:

 Timothy Egan, New York Times: “Donald Trump’s Police State”: “…I’m starting to have some dark fears should Donald Trump become president. Take him at his word — albeit, a worthless thing given his propensity for telling outright lies and not backing down when called on them — Donald Trump’s reign would be a police state. He has now outlined a series of measures that would make the United States an authoritarian nightmare. Trump is no longer entertaining, or diversionary. He’s a billionaire brute, his bluster getting more ominous by the day.

    Washington Post Editorial, “Donald Trump’s Politics of Denigration Rage On”: “Just when you think Donald Trump’s campaign could not possibly become more loathsome, the billionaire bully proves you wrong again … As we have said before, it is time for Republican Party leaders to make clear that they do not approve of Mr. Trump’s politics of denigration. If they do not, their party will be seen as complicit in his hatefulness, and deservedly so.”
     
    USA Today Editorial, “Trump’s Indecent Presidential Campaign”: “All of this fear-mongering comes on top of his preposterous plan to deport the roughly 11 million immigrants in this country illegally, which would be the equivalent of emptying the state of Ohio. Even minimal thought about the mechanics of doing this should convince most people that it wouldn’t just be inhumane to rip millions of people out of communities where they’ve worked and raised families for years; almost two-thirds have lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more. It would cost the federal government billions of dollars, require the creation of an enormous police state and be hugely destabilizing to the economy. Pandering to voters’ basest impulses is, of course, a time-honored tradition in American politics. Usually, someone arises with the courage to take on a demagogue … In 1954, Wisconsin GOP Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s campaign to ferret out supposed communists in America seemed unstoppable until a little known Boston lawyer confronted McCarthy during a televised Senate hearing after McCarthy accused a junior lawyer of communist ties. ‘Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness,’ said attorney Joseph Welch. ‘Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?’ It's time that today's Joseph Welch confronts Donald Trump with the same question.”
     
    Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist: The GOP “Slide into the Swamp”:“This descent into xenophobia was led, as usual, by Donald Trump. Amid bushels of word salad, he concurred with registering American Muslims, raised alarms about Arab American treachery (‘thousands and thousands’ on TV cheering the World Trade Center collapse) and promised not only to deny entry to Syrian refugees, but to send back the ones already here. Can you see it? Packing them into his 757, the one with gold-plated seat belts, then dumping them — orphans, widows, the lot — into a war zone to await the next barrel bomb. Other GOP candidates have issued Trumpian echoes. The Muslim registry had no takers. But some have advocated shutting out all the refugees or taking Christians only. They are chasing the polls showing strong anti-refugee sentiment. How deeply shortsighted. It may work in the GOP primaries. But Trump-like anti-immigrant, anti-foreigner, now anti-Muslim, anti-Arab rhetoric — and don’t forget those cunning Chinese stealing our jobs and ruthless Mexicans raping our women — will not play well in a general election. Politically, it will be fatal. John Kasich has forcefully denounced this slide into the swamp. Where are the others?”
     
    Greg Sargent, Washington Post: “Yes, Donald Trump’s Demagoguery Just Got Even Uglier”: “By declining to say whether Islam is a violent religion, and by suggesting that ‘hatred’ is coming out of a “big part” of Islam, Trump has exposed the xenophobic subtext of his rhetoric about Muslims, much the way his previous comments about Mexicans helped illuminate the true intended appeal of his immigration prescriptions…”