Henry Rousso, a Jewish Holocaust historian and Egyptian-born French citizen, was detained by U.S. officials for ten hours after his eleven hour flight from France and was about to be returned to Paris before faculty at Texas A&M University, where he was scheduled to speak, intervened. Continue reading →

I am for screening or “vetting” of refugees seeking to be resettled in our country. I believe there should be in-depth processes which evaluate and validate who enters our nation, especially in times of great conflict and from areas of great conflict.

However, what I have found in the midst of the current national debate on this topic is that most people are unaware of what is already in place in terms of screening/vetting refugees. There is a high degree of assumption that whatever is in place it is not detailed enough. When I ask, “What do you think should be in place to make our system better?” the most common answers are usually related to “background checks” and “how do we know who these people are?” Continue reading →

Every time I contact the offices of our US Senators and Representatives from here in Oklahoma, I get the sense that they could care less what any of us think.

Every time. Continue reading →